Something Hopeful
by Grasslandparks
Summary: What do you do when you can't even keep up with the changes in life? You promise yourself that you'll make it through somehow, using whatever means necessary. It doesn't matter how many people you step on, or whoever gets caught in your way. It's survival of the fittest, after all. Even as children, people are trained to think that way.
1. Beginnings

**A/N: If you've read my original post on _Promise?_ you've seen this chapter before. I thought it fitting to keep this as the introduction chapter for the revision as well, due to the fact that I actually liked this old thing. You can read it again, if you'd like, and all my new readers can as well. This is the intro to a new story, a slightly different plot line, and a new fate for our main character. Enjoy, you guys~**

* * *

Soft voices were heard from outside the darkened room, and the medical-nin who had assisted in the labor whispered gingerly for them to enter.

The first to enter was fittingly the baby's last family member, her newly made older brother. He watched in slight amusement as the baby whimpered, hands clenching and unclenching in a fascinated way. Her eyes, a glorious shade of cerulean blue that put any ocean to shame, stared at the new world with an unrivaled wonder. The next three bodies to enter, a younger adult in his early twenties as well as his other two students, merely stood at the door in an unwilling attempt to give the latest addition to the family her well-deserved space.

The young brother, perhaps eight or nine, held his hands out invitingly as he insinuated his want to clasp the newborn. The most remarkable things about the boy, I think, were his fine hair that resembled spun silver and platinum and the mask that covered his nose down and allowed only for his eternally languid sable eyes to be illuminated by the strings of light cast by the full moon.

In his bijou, yet sinewy arms, the infant nearly melted into her older brother, and he realized how frail this little girl was. A satisfaction like no other coursed through every fiber of his chakra-infused body, and he grinned down at his sister lovingly. The connection was instantaneous, and her stubby fingers outstretched to grip her older brother's hair, tightening and loosening and taking her time grasping a lock of it.

The medic-nin muttered something below hearing to the delighted father, making him pale slightly and grasp the hand of his wife whose breathing was failing her. The wise shinobi suddenly felt sullen, pallor face catching the moon's rays and reflecting his despondency, making otherwise unnoticeable wrinkles on his face shine with clarity.

"Kakashi," he suddenly murmured, "Why don't you and your teammates go into the living room? Go ahead and take your sister, she should be fine as long as you keep quiet." The masked boy nodded, his long sprouts of hair shaking on the top of his head as he did so. Tempted by the moving strands, the baby cooed as she gripped the tuft of hair that had slid in between Kakashi's eyes under his Konoha shinobi force's headband.

"_Hai otōsan(1)_," Kakashi responded honorably, gently fixing his sister's head and holding it with his gloved hand and slightly calloused fingers from his prior academy training. Behind him, two pairs of cocoa eyes stared at the infant who was currently being cradled in Kakashi's arms against his ribcage.

The bedroom they left behind was silent, the only sounds that of the pattering rain and gentle coos from the children who were speaking to the baby. The young guest, Namikaze Minato, stepped forward and placed a calm hand on the father's shoulder.

"Sakumo-san, what's wrong? Is there any way that I could help?" The pallid face shook gently, but the man cleared his throat and answered respectably to his son's sensei.

"It's alright. However, I believe I should talk to Kakashi for a while. If it is alright with you, I would also like to keep him home from training tomorrow." Minato nodded solemnly, glancing at the frail woman who had only just given birth. She looked as white as a ghost, the deep colors in her skin thinning out and causing her to appear corpse-like with the addition of her sunken cheeks and eyes. Hatake Kira, the new mother, was losing herself faster than anyone could save her. She would die within the week, the medic-nin said, due to complications in the pregnancy.

Soundlessly, the spiky-haired sensei slipped from the room and paused in front of his students. Nohara Rin was the first to notice his presence, but she said nothing as she assisted Kakashi in slipping the baby into some clothes and folded the pre-applied diaper so that it wouldn't chaff the smooth milky skin of the little girl's legs or stomach. Uchiha Obito, who had always thought of Kakashi as a rival and slight jerk, couldn't help the grin on his face as the baby held her clumsy fists out to grab for his fingers uncoordinatedly. Even if she were Kakashi's sister, Obito felt a pull on his heartstrings as she placed it into her mouth to suck on them with her toothless mouth. She was, in all sense, adorable.

"Rin, Obito, I believe it's time that we get home and leave the Hatakes alone for tonight. They'll have a lot of work to do with that new baby around," The two chunin seemed to consider this, and Rin was the first to stand and glance at the baby now in Kakashi's arms. _That baby, _she mused, _she's Kakashi's new little sister. She's so…so…precious. Maybe one day..._ It was certainly wishful yet undoubtedly hopeless thinking, she knew, but she smiled nonetheless at her thoughts and waited for Obito to stand as well before she waved goodbye and the guests left the house feeling empty.

"Kakashi, come in here." His father commanded gently, and the boy stood and slowly walked, holding his sister cautiously just in case her head grew too cumbersome for her.

"Yes, father?" He passed the unnamed baby to the older man, whom Kakashi was a miniature replica of, minus the long hair and deeply set wrinkles from his seemingly constant anxiety despite his young age. Sakumo held the child tenderly, brushing his rough hand against the soft spot of her skull lightly so as not to harm the girl. She cooed at him, drooling as she grabbed his hand awkwardly and placed it into her mouth.

"Your mother…she has been sick for a while. The stress of having a child was very taxing on her. She's going to need a lot of sleep, and it's not certain if she'll ever wake up." Kakashi nodded absentmindedly, assured by his childish belief that his mother was strong enough to persevere. He had known that his mother had been sick, he had understood that it was why she couldn't walk very far without growing tired and that was why he had to do most of the shopping, and the silver-haired boy glanced back at the baby.

"_Otōsan_, what is her name going to be?" He inquired, leaving his father at a loss for words. This had not been what he was trying to get Kakashi to understand; he had just told him that his mother would most likely die, shouldn't he have been a little more worried about his mother? But Sakumo wouldn't push the truth on him, he was merely a child-his son, who couldn't tell when a person was losing their will to live every moment.

Kira wouldn't have wanted anyone to become upset in such a situation, he was sure, but with two children to raise on his own, Sakumo felt his heart ache. He couldn't provide a mother's touch, or instincts that Kira could have when Kakashi went on missions, and he could never understand his new daughter-their new daughter-the way his wife would. Their daughter would grow up with only a father to guide her, and Sakumo was wary about being that father. The wizened parent couldn't even begin to imagine the loss Kakashi would be put through, the grief of losing the mother who had taken care of him-who had been the only constant in his new life of being a shinobi in a time of war.

He couldn't bring himself to think about the baby, who would never know her mother and would only be able to look upon her with a face of distance, a detached expression written all over her. Sakumo looked back to Kakashi's awaiting face; it was always his eyes that he used to express himself. After a moment longer spent hesitating, Sakumo sent Kakashi to bed with an excuse that he would think more about it tonight.

Of course, Kira had always fought a great deal for one name in particular, while Sakumo couldn't be budged from telling his wife that the chance to choose was entirely up to her. She wouldn't take any of that, not with the fiery attitude of hers. But already, he could see the difference between Kakashi, who had been a relatively quiet baby who had only wanted to sleep, and this little girl who had been much too curious to shut her eyes yet. She only quieted down after a few minutes of coddling on her father's part.

_Akari_, he pondered over the name. Kira couldn't seem to let go of it. _Hatake Akari, the light to my wife's darkness. The new life in this death. A ward to keep away her mother's demons. Yes, it does seem fitting._

"Hm, do you like that, little Akari?" But the baby was asleep, her hands clenched to hide the symbols that burned their way to her hands with a red light not unlike bioluminescent plasma. Two overlapping diamonds each appeared on her left and right palms, one as dark as evil while the other was bloody red and looked as if the flesh had been peeled away to leave the mark. Akari whimpered in her sleep, but it went unnoticed by her father, who stared at his wife in a longing sense that he wished she would wake up to look at her daughter.

Akari. She would be so proud.

Hatake Akari…the light in darkness.

If only he knew.

* * *

**A/N: So, to my new readers: I'd like to see what you think about this. Should I make this new thing work, or just stop before I make this whole thing get out of hand? I won't be posting extremely often-perhaps once every other week, or so-but I can keep making progress with it if you want to read. I also have a better idea of what I want from this (however, if I'll actually keep it going the same way is the biggest question). Anywho, I'll get to work on the next chapter if you're willing to give this a chance, and I'll see you during the next installment!**

**(1)**_**_Otōsan_-**_**means father**


	2. Comings and Goings

**I'm not dead! I am, however, really sorry for making anyone wait for this-I'm afraid that with all the big changes from one school to the next, homework, and then afterschool activities, yadda yadda yadda, I haven't exactly had much time to write this except at two in the morning and then weekends. And it's not exactly fun getting three hours of sleep every night. Starting out the story in a mystery person's point of view (First the blonde chick who kinda kidnapped Akari in the first revision, who will also make an appearance here because her role is absolutely HUGE, and now this new chick? Hm, lots of mystery people in here. Why? Because why not!). Anywho~**

**I'd love to thank those of you who have followed me here, especially my ever-faithful drakonic13. Also, it has been brought to my attention that ships and pairings are already being formed in this without my knowledge? Well, I need ideas for who you think Akari should date, etc. Of course I already know who _I _am going to pair her with, but your say is important to me as my lovely readers! You can put your answers in your reviews and make me happy with a bit of input, too!**

**Anywho, on with the main event!**

* * *

Feet pounding on the ground. Leg muscles clenching as her lithe form slipped between each and every obstacle, whether root, kunai, or otherwise. Her dark locks were sticking to her face like the sweat that drenched it, and she pulled herself closer so that she could conceal herself beneath the safety of her stolen cloak.

The very trees were working for her enemies, as their fingers clutched her arms and clawed at her feet, tripping her up every other step she took away from the warzone she had not quite fled from. She had nothing left in the place she had once called home, not even a family or an actual home to escape to. Everything was gone back there, in the pinpricks of what had once been her village that dotted the bleary horizon like the stars in the hazy night sky.

She glanced, unafraid of the darkness that lingered around her and pushed her forward like a comforting friend. It had always guided her before. Besides, fear wasn't stocked up on in her emotional bank-more than likely, it had been replaced by whatever foolish arrogance had caused her to run in the first place. How was she, the smallest child in the village, supposed to escape from professionally-trained shinobi who were hot on her trail? Sure she had been the fastest kid around, but that didn't make up for the lack of skill and experience she had compared to the ninja hunting her.

Stumbling around in the night, scrabbling around and fondling the surrounding foliage for a break in the forest's line of defense. Escape hadn't seemed this problematic in her head-it was a simple long-winded sprint to the nearest village, after all. Having not taken into account how her precious sentimentalities would weigh her down, she had burst from the unruly crowds of people and fled past the borders of the old village. She would surely pay for this haughtiness in exhaustion, blind pain, and nightmare-ridden dreams.

Oh well, it wasn't as if those hadn't been part of her everyday life beforehand. Perhaps with a new village, she could have a new name-a new face, even. And if anyone ever found her, she could move elsewhere and start over again. She wouldn't have any loyalties, or any ties to cling onto from anywhere or anyone.

A kunai scraped the very outside layer of her cheek-or had it been a branch? Either way, it forced her to shake her head and sprint ahead to rid herself of the threat of following shinobi. She couldn't have her mind running elsewhere while she plowed into some tree, especially when she was being pursued. Not only would it most likely render her unconscious at such a speed, making it only that much easier for her trackers to drag her back, but it would be excruciatingly humiliating having been the very cause of her own failure.

"There she is!" A voice called out not too far behind her at a slight angle to the right. She scoffed indignantly, wondering how green they allowed their shinobi to be out in the field, or if it had just been a spur of the moment burst of pride in her comparable lack of professional skill as she had been spotted. Allowing your target to locate your position was a horrible move in any case, whether it was a rookie's mistake or an illustration of her lack of prowess.

She darted to the left, pulling off the gloves that concealed her marked palms and formed the inimitable handsigns passed down from generation to generation in her village. The world erupted into darkness for those who followed her, and even the gleaming stars became pitch black as they bled out and became one with the sky. A layer of darkness coated her, and she listened cautiously as her captors cursed audibly in the branches of trees. Even the thin shadows cast by the luminous full moon were blotted out and the eyes of the effected shinobi were as good as useless.

Perhaps her superciliousness would turn into a fruitful endeavor for her, as she continued on in her half-blinded state from the jutsu. Maybe there would be something worth running to when she arrived wherever it was she was heading.

* * *

Although the room was lacking in people, a cheery banter spread throughout the few who had shown up to attend the party. A little girl sat in a chair, arms crossed as she mindlessly listened in on the conversation that the relaxed man across the room from her was having with another dark-haired girl, perhaps ten years old. Another black-haired boy who sat beside her, goggles hiked up into his hair, constantly tried to butt in with his two cents. Almost every time he found himself unable to keep up with the other two shinobi.

"Bito-nii, I want to play," The little girl whined, uncurling her limbs and tugging on his arm. She didn't even get a second glance from him. Intent on getting some sort of attention from the older boy, she pulled his goggles from his spiky hair and placed them on top of her face upside down while her lips turned into something crookedly amusing and her eyes crossed in a way that usually caused him to laugh. Well, if he had even been looking at her in the first place.

"Obito," she dragged his name out, leaning over the arm of her chair to tap him on the shoulder. Her slightly chubby legs stretched all the way out, and her arm had to extend to reach him, but it was a small price to pay to get him to pay her attention. It _was _her birthday, after all. Shouldn't she deserve some sort of responsiveness over Rin for one day?

"Hush, Akari." Was his hasty reply, muttered to her under his breath as he turned away from her to the otherwise undisturbed discussion being held by his sensei and teammate. Akari recoiled at that, giving him the nastiest glare she could muster at the age of four, before flopping back onto her chair with an ungraceful grunt.

"Stupid Obito-nii. All I wanted was for him to play tag with me, _ne_?" Akari picked at the fabric of the cushioned chair. Truthfully, she found it uncomfortable and rather unsightly with its hideously archaic (and now so worn that it was hardly discernable) floral pattern. However, it was the only place that she had found room once Rin arrived and Obito walked in about an hour later under false pretenses of showing up for her birthday party.

She doubted he had even remembered-his memory was that of a squirrel's on caffeine. Obito had probably just visited because Rin had said she'd be there at that time, and he wanted to "coincidentally stop by" at the same time as her. It was always the same thing when there was Rin in the picture.

So Akari would sit in her chair and hope that the fiery-tempered woman in the kitchen would either hurry up or actually let her help finish frosting the cake without chastising her for licking the icing off of the spreading knife. If anything, she should be able to eat whatever she wanted for her birthday, especially since her own family-her very flesh and blood-hadn't shown up for the party. It should be their way of making things up to her by paying attention to her and treating her like nobility. Instead, they were politely disputing which attack strategy could utilize an ambush the best; gawking at another girl; and angrily slapping icing onto a birthday cake.

At least with Kakashi, she knew he'd pay at least a bit of attention to her-even if he acted rather distant or aloof. It didn't matter either way; Akari missed her big brother whenever he went on these solo missions without his usual team. He was her only family left, and once upon a time he had been the person she venerated the most. Of course, that was before _the incident_, when everything was okay at home and she actually felt loved-which had all been a long time ago now.

It was okay since she was officially a big girl now-no more crying, like Kakashi told her. She'd have to grow up someday, he'd said, and maybe by growing up things would be better. Maybe they could go back to being a big brother and a little sister, instead of vaguely mentioned family member and standoffish older shinobi. Maybe Kakashi would even tuck her in again, and he could sing her papa's lullaby like he would when papa had gone out on missions of his own. They could pretend he had only gone on a little trip, and that he'd be back soon, and that they didn't have to live with Minato-jisan and Kushina-bachan, and that they were orphans without anywhere else to go other than this incommodious house.

And they could go eat ice cream on Saturday, play tag with their friends on Fridays, drop her off at the Academy on Monday mornings, laze around instead of doing work after school and missions, go visit the river on Sundays and read books when they had free time. And they'd see Obito and Rin (separately for attention-seeking purposes) and then Akari would introduce him to her only friend from school and they'd all get along and be happy together.

Children dream beyond whatever reality they face ahead, I suppose. Such resilience isn't found in adults or anyone else who lacks such a childish innocence. Ignorance is bliss, they say.

* * *

"Excuse me, young man, but you have to pay for that." The pudgy woman sharply murmured, causing the teenaged boy scanning the shelves to direct his stony gaze at the clerk.

"I know. Seeing how this is a store, I would guess that you'd have to pay for _anything _in here. That is how it works, isn't it?"

"Listen kid, I didn't ask for your smartass response. I've been working here fourteen hours straight, and I can tell when a kid can't afford nothing here. That shelf is too much for a little boy to pay for, 'specially a snot-nosed brat. I suggest you kindly leave before I call the police." The silver-haired boy scoffed, picking up the items he had previously eyed before prying out his stuffed wallet and slamming a stack of money on the counter the woman worked at.

"Keep the change," he muttered, grabbing a coarse brown bag from the end of the wooden counter; shoving his purchases into it. "Nice to do business with you." His voice carried every hint of irony that he could drone out, glowering at her agape mouth with distaste. This had been the first-and last-time he visited a store in this little ramshackle village on the outskirts of the Land of Fire, but he needed something to eat after having run low on his food pills and Rin would kill him if he didn't take his diet seriously. Not that he actually cared what she thought of him; he really just wanted to spare himself the scolding he'd get from her for not taking care of his nutrition.

He knew she had a bit of a crush on him, but it was puppy love if anything else. And rather unrequited, at that. Rin could depend on his strength, and there was nothing else to her emotions-nothing deeper that he could've missed, because he had specifically spaced himself from them so that he wouldn't get attached. There was no way she could actually love him.

But whatever, it didn't matter anyway. He had to get back to Konoha to report to the Hokage about his recon mission, and then he could sleep for the rest of the week before diving back into his missions and training.

Akari may have passed through his head once or twice, but only as a fleeting thought as he unloaded and organized the contents of his purchases and slim inventory. One oblong object remained in the thick paper bag, and he quickly stuffed the leftover papers into it as well to free up his hands as his bag was shifted onto his shoulders.

He had just a bit more to travel before arriving back in Konoha-maybe a bit after midnight, unless he could sprint the whole way there. Oh well, who needed legs to sleep anyway?

"Happy birthday to you!" The others sang, each beaming at the little girl who stared at the cake as if it were the most interesting thing she had ever seen. Really, she just wanted to lick the whole thing clean of its icing-but that would be frowned upon, especially when Obito was just as excited to eat the cake as she was. She didn't want him to be disappointed because she got her spit all over it and he couldn't eat it.

"Blow out the candles, Akari." Uncle Minato gently urged, watching her grin sheepishly before the four flickering candles burned out. Obito jumped in as the first one to speak.

"What'd you wish for?" He implored, eyes shimmering with a curiosity that made her giggle as she shook her head feverishly. Basking in the attention that was showered upon her was one of her favorite hobbies.

"Not telling! It won't come true then!" In all actuality, she had forgotten to make a wish and was hoping that it was alright if she were a bit lacking in punctuality this once as she hastily screwed her eyes shut and began to demand her wishes mentally. _I wish that me and Kashi-nii can be best friends again. Oh, and that Obito pays more attention to me. That would be good too._

"Alright, it's time to open presents Akari." Rin's smile could blind anyone as she directed her beam at Akari. She mentally cursed with every awful word she could scrounge up as she found herself unable to _not_ smile back at Rin's absurd joy. It was so hard to hate someone like her, who was always so happy for everyone. It only made Akari want to despise her even more.

"Here-open mine first, Akari-chan! It's the purple one with black stripes!" How had she known that purple was her favorite color? Stupid Rin with her stupid niceness and stupid good-natured soul.

"It's really heavy," the girl noted, picking it up from the floor to drag it closer to her chair. She began peeling off the wrapping paper, discovering a large cardboard box as her fingers swiped at the tape and pried it open.

Clothes. Not even regular shirts and pants, either. Inside were dresses and skirts and too-pretty-to-train-in shirts that would decay in her closet after the years she wouldn't wear them. Frilly things weren't her style, in case Rin hadn't noticed her worn out t-shirt and shorts. Kushina identified that bitterly downcast look that Akari shot at the box of clothes, and jumped to the rescue before anything could be said about the brunette's poor choice in gifts.

"Thank you so much, Rin. Akari's gone through a growth spurt, and her old clothes are starting to get too small for her, you know. Let's see what's in there, Akari." The little girl frowned, pulling out each and every lacey dress, frilled skirt, pleated blouse, until the bottom revealed itself to her with two small gifts that seemed to stick to the brown cardboard. Two black items that stuck out from the other pink and green clothes because of their differences.

Akari picked up the gloves, worn and black and without a trace of girly fabric on them with their simple design and intricate cutouts on the back filled in with black lace-which was so much better used like this than anything else that had been in the box. She immediately tugged them on over the thin cloth bandages that covered her hands, grinning at them while the other clothes sat dejected on the floor.

Rin laughed at the fact that the four-year old had taken a liking to her old gloves. She had gotten them from one of her uncles as a present when she had become a chunin, but they were much too dark for her tastes. It would suit Akari's fiery personality well, not to mention the fact that they could mask those unsightly bandages on her hands.

"Thanks, Rin-chan," she chirped, almost able to shoot a smile at the brunette. Obito glanced at the girl beside him, wanting to make himself known and visible to her.

"Open mine next, Akari! It's the black bag over there," she quickly fetched the bag, eager to see what she had gotten from Obito. The bag wasn't as heavy as Rin's overstuffed box, but as she pulled the crinkly white tissue paper from the package her eyes widened as a beam crossed her face.

"Candy!" she grinned, glancing at the packs of artificially flavored, tooth-rotting sweets. All of her favorite bubble gum, chocolate-everything was in there. "Thanks, Bito-nii!"

"All right, all right. Yeah, it _was _a pretty good gift right? The best for my Akari-chan," She giggled, picking up another curious gift. It must've been from Minato and Kushina, with the former having wrapped it by the looks of the wrinkled paper and messy taping skills.

Inside was something that made her whole face shine, especially when she recognized the object that sat on the top of the pile. Her stuffed fox, the toy she'd had for as long as she could remember, stared up at her. It was neatly washed, and the stitches that had loosened up with her constant holding it and the tears that had begun to form in the fabric were dexterously sewn so that you could never tell they had been there in the first place.

Beneath the fox laid a pile of books: a stunning array of everything from picture books to chapter books, all brand new without the edges of them worn from other people having touched them. And they were _hers_.

"Thanks _jisan_ and _bachan_! I love them," Minato grinned.

"I'm glad."

"And now you won't have to be going to the library after school so much and staying out so late." Kushina added lightly, her mood swinging worse than any pendulum there ever was. Pregnancy hormones were fiercely attached to moods.

"Mhm," Akari's hum answered, as she dove into the box and pulled out a simple picture book, setting her stuffed animal on her lap. "I wanna have cake now."

"Then cake you shall have! Let's eat," Obito exclaimed, generating a rather cheerful reply from the others.

* * *

Her socked feet made little noise other than the typical thunk down the wooden staircase. She yawned, rubbing at her tired eyes as her stuffed animal trailed behind her. It must've been well past midnight, because she could hear Minato and/or Kushina (she really couldn't tell who was the loudest anymore) snoring. Which also meant that they were fast asleep, something that should be occurring to her.

Insomnia, or something like that: it was what the doctor had called it during her yearly checkup when he'd noticed the dark circles under her eyes. It meant something about sleep, specifically not being able to fall asleep. It had been like this for a while, her waiting until she could hear their snores-which, based on the clock in her room, usually happened a little past midnight. She'd sneak down into the living room, and pick out something to do; usually something to watch.

It was usually the moon outside. She'd been watching the moon starve itself for the past few days, watching it grow thinner and thinner before it began feasting and widened itself once more.

Other times, she'd simply try to point out things she thought were constellations. Akari'd connect a few dots here, some others there, and her imagination would bring about a horse, chicken, pig-whatever she could think up.

She may draw a bit, with the pencil she'd unintentionally stolen from Kaoru-sensei but would never return to school. So far, she hadn't been his major suspect and she intended to stay out of the line of fire until she graduated. That trouble business was more for people who didn't have anything else to go on in school; people who weren't about to get out of there and become an actual shinobi. They were kids who had no skills other than making messes and ruining missions. Or at least, that's what Kakashi told her when she'd asked why they created mischief.

Then again, why should she listen to Kakashi? Where was he now, on her fourth birthday? Well, she knew the answer of course: he was on a mission of some sort. He'd known there would be a miniscule chance that he'd get back to even tell her 'Hello' or 'Good morning.' It didn't matter anyway, he hadn't exactly worked as a good big brother for the past few years.

If anything, it would've made things awkward if he'd shown up tonight-not only for her, but Obito, who would do anything to steal Rin's attention away from her older brother; Rin, who would prove to him that she was worth his love; Minato, who'd be wary of the two boys and their previous scuffles; and Kushina, who was pregnant and therefore always worrying.

"Still," she murmured beneath her breath, "It wouldn't have hurt him to have shown up to wish me a happy birthday. He's always forgetting about me, and leaving me behind, and he never even talks to me when he's here. It's always missions."

There had been lots of doctors visiting them after they moved in with Minato-jisan and Kushina-bachan. Most were the kind that they had to be taken to and they put a stethoscope to your lungs and made you breathe in and out. However, some were the kind that asked lots of questions. Those were the ones that made Akari mad, especially after she'd seen them ask Kakashi things. _Private _things; things that Kakashi should've never told anyone but her. It wasn't any of their business to ask how they felt, it wasn't their business to make Kakashi angry and distant and bitterly cold-but they did anyway.

They called her outbursts "Violent Displays of Grief," and she had seen them write it down so many times that she had been able to remember the letters. She'd carved them into her drawings before, and Minato-jisan had woken up before he was supposed to and had spotted her writing it. She hadn't known what it meant, but his face had been shocked to see it on her paper in her loose scrawl. There hadn't been any more doctors since then.

A knock dragged her from her thoughts, and she quickly padded over to the window, clutching her stuffed animal to her chest tightly at the thought of a burglar. The door handle rattled a bit, before it clicked and opened.

She couldn't believe her eyes.

"Kashi?" His shoulders shook as he caught his air, and his face was streaked red from running in the wintry winds. His breath led him through the door, and Akari shivered at the frozen gust that buried itself into her bones. Grinning softly, her older brother shut the door noiselessly before placing a bag beside the entry. He heaved a few deep breaths before lowering his mask from his nose and mouth to breathe without the filter it provided.

"You should be asleep."

"Where were you?"

"None of your business. Go back to your room and go to sleep." She frowned, pursing her bottom lip as she crossed her arms.

"No. I want to know why you weren't here for my birthday. Obito and Rin showed up, but you were s'posed to be here."

"Go to sleep, Akari."

"Where were you!?"

"It's none of your business! Now quiet down before you wake the whole village up; don't you know it's past midnight? And you have to go to the Academy tomorrow for exams, you need sleep so that you can do well."

"You even missed my birthday party! You don't care about me, and you never did."

"Akari, stop being a self-centered brat for once and think about what I've been doing for the past week. I'm going upstairs to take a shower, and then I'm going to get some rest. By the way, feel free to look in the bag if you're curious." She frowned, sitting back onto the cushions of the couch as Kakashi passed by the chair on his way up the stairs. Kitsune-y, her stuffed fox, glared at the silver-haired brother critically, reflecting her owner's hard, undiluted glower.

Did he really think he could get to her so easily? Burst in unexpected at dusk, sweep upstairs-still without a single birthday wish, albeit the fact that technically her birthday was over-and then just expect her to listen to his every whim? Well, she certainly wasn't going to give him that satisfaction!

Even if she were curious-and she most certainly was _not_-she wouldn't give him the pleasure of seeing her stony resolve crumble to dust. No matter how intrigued she was by the brown bag which he had left there and practically _invited _her to peek into, she refused to look simply because it was what he wanted of her. Akari was much too stubborn to look into the extremely important bag that her brother had left behind. Much too strong to ever crack in such a way. Besides, if he had even wanted her to check it out, he would've specifically told her in a way that wasn't as vague as _'You can look if you'd like…'_

Who was she kidding? This bag was an enigma that she needed solved before she could even think about doing anything else. It was a Rubik's Cube that she couldn't leave unfinished, and a surprise that her very own big brother-her actual one, not Obito-had given to her! Her big brother Kakashi, who had never even tried to hold a conversation with her past the time when she was two and could hardly walk but he insisted she learn how to climb trees with her miniscule chakra trace. Kakashi, who had scolded her and watched her cry after she scraped her knees on the gravel when she was running from stall to stall on one of the many market streets of Konoha. Kakashi who, given the first chance, had dumped her here in the arms of his sensei instead of staying home and taking care of her like a good big brother should have. Kakashi, who was the opposite of her beloved Obito and had never seemed to care about her beyond the curt "_Hmm,_" after she related her exceeding scored in school to him.

What could he have put in that bag for her to see?

The sound of water hitting the tile of their shared half bathroom shattered her reverie and dragged her attention, while kicking and screaming, back to the bag. She bit her lip, a nervous habit she had grown accustomed to over the past two years. If she just peered over the edge, she wouldn't really be listening to him, would she? And anyway, he was upstairs in the shower now, and there was no way he could find her snooping through it. There was no way he could even find out.

The papers on top were dragged out with a rugged scraping noise, and it took a bit for the balled up textiles to reveal a snapshot of what was underneath-the thing Kakashi had hidden from her. The first thing she saw was dark brown, and then there were flashes of icy blue and white. She decided that this wasn't enough to decide what was down there, and pulled the object out cautiously.

"A doll?" she whispered, brushing the hair out of the other little girl's face. The body was fabric stuffed with something that felt like cotton from the outside, but the face was plastic and surreal. She wore a shirt made from the same fabric as her body, but it was a frosty-colored shirt with elongated shapes of ivory birds that stretched through it like a spider's silk on a backdrop of the pale wintry sky outside. Her electric eyes were reflected back in the doll's blue orbs, though her straight bangs almost hid them from view. It was perhaps the most beautiful thing she had seen, and she wondered why Kakashi had it with him.

It occurred to her suddenly, and she mentally berated herself for being so stupid. It was obviously her birthday present, and that was all just Kashi's halfhearted way to tell her happy birthday. Of course she wouldn't get it straight from him; that just wasn't how he went about things. Not with her, at least. Not about things that mattered.

But she smiled to herself sheepishly, and held the doll closer to her while stifling a yawn with her hand. It was well past midnight, and though she was tired there was no way she could find sleep now. The excitement from the surprise and the shock of what it was had invigorated her, but now that the mystery was over a wave of drowsiness washed over her like the night had cleared out the sun and the silvery clouds had covered the moon. She could hardly sit down before falling asleep, clutching Kitsune-y and her new doll to her tightly. It seemed that her constant insomnia had caught up to her, and with the lack of adrenaline and nothing to do, she slipped off into a fitful slumber.

* * *

_Running, _the dark-haired girl thought to herself, dodging a branch that reached out to clash against her face with its spindly fingers. _It just had to be running. Why can't we all just let the little girl go without having to pursue her? That smokescreen I created was supposed to have worked, and I guess it confused their sight but still…they can't really rely on their sight in the first place if it's dark out here._

_Please let there be somewhere for me to stay up here. I need a safe haven before I slow down any more than I am right now. It's so hard to keep a constant pace for so long, and I think my cover's about to be blown if I can't find somewhere…_

Tendrils of dawn etched their way up into the night's sky, ascending from the eastern horizon in front of her. It cracked the darkness of the night, like a tree root skillfully yet sluggishly cracking open a rock. With her night warmth and familiarity evaporating into thin air, it wouldn't take much more for them to catch a firm pinpoint on her and snatch her back. And then…

She frowned, ruby lips tilting downwards as it did when she chastised herself. Those thoughts were _not _going to help her when she still had a chance. Maybe if she continued thinking positively, she could have a shot at actually making it. If she traveled east long enough, there would be another village that she would run into and maybe someone would take her in there. She could only hope that someone would be kind enough to allow a shady immigrant such as herself in their home for food and shelter, and maybe even a bath. She could definitely use one after this run. And maybe some new clothes, too.

_Kami, mom's gonna be so mad when she realizes I made a break for it. And dad would kill me if I ever showed my face around there again. _She internally grumbled, _But at least this'll be one hell of a story to tell my kids…_

* * *

**A/N: So what'd you think? I know it might've been a bit confusing, but don't worry because I plan on explaining!**

**...Eventually.**

**Which brings me to my next big topic: My updates won't be very frequent or regular since I have school and it takes me a while to make these chapters worthwhile instead of crappy. It might pick up a bit more after September because I'll be done with my sport for the year, but that's me being hopeful that my schoolwork doesn't pile up. I'll try my best to update, though, and I _WILL_** **_NOT_****abandon this story. Mark my words, I will continue this if it kills me.**

**Hope y'all enjoyed!^^**


	3. Fate

**A/N: In general, I'd like to thank my beautiful readers who have stuck with me through this time.**

**I'd like to thank the following for favoriting this story:**

**kiasairen**

**time-twilight**

**I'd especially like to thank these for following this story:**

**CheddarLord**

**Crimson Ribbon**

**Vandar93**

**watchingtherain1**

**And my two lovely, amazing readers who reviewed, favorited, and followed this story:**

**ShikiUploadz**

**drakonic13**

**Now, on with the show~**

* * *

_Akari remembered this room. She felt the coarse, wooden wall with her fingertips, breathing in as if she could smell the memories. Her shoulders slumped as she walked forward silently, looking down at the light from the windows. The floor, with four illuminated squares, was also wooden, though the boards were smoother so as to not splinter and hurt small, bare feet. The room was empty, devoid of life and furniture alike, and the shinobi in the center of it all kneeled down to touch the floor. Her small hands traced the figure of a human on the ground, a man. And suddenly the man was there, with deep gashes in his stomach and a sword beside him that Akari knew too well. A sabre that shouldn't have been used for the purpose it had been for that night._

_A young girl stood in a pool of blood that was going to stain the floor crimson-brown. She didn't move, just looked at the man before her who looked asleep instead of dead. There was no way he could be dead. He had tucked her in the night before, sang her a lullaby, told her he loved her, and left her to sleep. This man, whose face was twisted in a painful sort of peaceful agony, couldn't be her father._

_The child was barely a toddler, yet she looked upon the face of death with an almost languid expression. Akari didn't have a clue why such a young girl was looking upon her dead father with such a transfixed expression as she donned. Her eyes dimmed with unshed tears and the buildup eventually spilled the salty water down her cheeks._

_How did Akari know this? Because that little girl, barely a toddler, was her just a little over a year ago. And suddenly Kakashi stood beside her, holding back tears as well as he could, because that was what they taught them in the academy. Their father, Sakumo Hatake, had taken his own life as they slept restfully in their respective beds, only to wake up and find him here in the middle of the night, lying in a pool of his own blood and strewn-out intestines. The White Light Chakra Sabre, the very one he had used hardly days beforehand to defend his team of shinobi, was stained deep red, and looked almost as black as death. The boy, whose hair shimmered silver in the dank light streaming in from the full moon through the window, reached down to pick up the short tantō carefully, letting the blood that hadn't dried slide off of the blade slowly, like the thick medicine-syrup they gave you when you weren't feeling good._

_She crawled on the floor through the stained blood, into her father's arms and locking herself in his embrace. It was cold. Appallingly, gruesomely, callously, and utterly wretchedly cold._

_The scene changed once again to another memory she loathed. The wind howled at the figures like a beggar, incessantly prompting for change while the forms clad in inky robes somberly prayed to the newly dug tombstone. A picture of the silver-haired man sat behind the gravesite. The one directly beside it had recently been mended, as the ruby paint which had once marked a still-living husband was finally washed away to show his death as well. After two brief years of being separated, the two would once again be united; though this time in the afterlife._

_Two children, as that was all that they were, stood at the front of the mourning crowd. Each person had either come to apologize for their wrong-doings to the recently deceased shinobi, or to pay their respects to the buried man before them. It shouldn't have ended this way. Most of the guilt fell upon those in the crowd—who had unwittingly caused the death of an honorable man and the orphaning of two bright young children—but it didn't change anything. It shouldn't have ended this way._

_A cherub of a girl, hardly even a toddler in respect of age, wiped at her teary eyes as she tried to understand everything. Her tiny hand reached up for her older brother's, seeking solace from the wind that blew away everything in her and left her feeling hollow and confused._

_"__Kashi-nii…why'd they put papa in that hole? Don't they know he can't get out if they covered it back up?" The older boy recoiled at the feeling of her touch, creating distance between the two siblings physically and mentally. He didn't want to explain this, and she was too young to understand anyway. But, being that he was her big brother and last family member, the explanation was left up to him._

_"__He's not going to come out of that hole, Akari." She turned to his answer, searching his face with shock plainly written across her features. From the slightly opened mouth which formed an 'o' to her widened eyes that reminded Kakashi of the look that a wild animal gets when it knows a hunter is close. His little sister was staggered, and fear carved her face into a grimace._

_"__But he promised he'd take me somewhere special for my birthday this year, and he said he'd get me bubblegum ice cream on Saturday, and that we could stay up late and play games and then train tomorrow, plus he's still got missions to do! He can't stay down there!"_

_"__Akari." Kakashi warned, arms tensing at the nuisance that his sister was becoming. Why couldn't she just understand and stay quiet for once in her life? Didn't she realize that everyone else was remaining soundless for a reason? "He's dead. He's never coming out of that grave again because he just can't, understand?"_

_But she couldn't say she did, not when she didn't understand it at all. A lump had formed in her throat, and she hardly had the room to breathe let alone answer her brother. Her father wasn't supposed to be in the ground, not when his work wasn't finished. He couldn't just leave like that, without even so much as a goodbye or anything of the likes. Wasn't he the greatest shinobi ever? Wasn't he supposed to fulfill all the promises he made to send her off when she started school at the Academy, to be there for her when she graduated, to watch each and every promotion until she reached the top of her line, to have ice cream on Saturdays, to teach her how to use those handsigns to master her fire release; didn't he promise that he would be there?_

_Now Kakashi said she wouldn't ever see him again and he wouldn't be able to wish her good luck on her very first mission, or to help her with lessons she didn't understand, or to tuck her in at night, or to sing her anymore lullabies to help her go to sleep, or to make her feel better after she hurt herself climbing trees..._

_He was gone. Not the same kind of gone as going-on-a-mission-and-coming-back gone, but gone for good. She hadn't even gotten to tell him that she loved him, even if it was applied knowledge. Now she couldn't see him smile at one of her ridiculously illogical jokes, or laugh with her and Kakashi when they tried cooking and almost burnt the kitchen, and she'd never even gotten to tell him goodbye._

_It was too late for any of that now. Too late to change his mind, to make him see reason, to fight whatever it was that had caused this to happen. She had felt her papa's taciturn arms as she cradled herself in them; felt his own blood as she crouched down to hug him goodnight. Somewhere in her, she had known that he wouldn't wake up again—an innate instinct that she tried to stave off with reason. Her papa couldn't leave, it didn't make any sense._

_She found herself bawling before she could even remember that it was only a dream, and her hands covered up the tears that she shed. They trickled like rivers down her cheeks before joining the ground in droplets like rain. Akari shook in her self-pity, crumpling into the earth like a wilting flower as her tears fell down her face. Kakashi didn't spare her a second glance as he did his best to keep his eyes trained on the gravestone and fought off his own miserable feelings._

_Eventually, however, his eyes wandered over the crowd fanned out to his right and left, and Akari's quivering form caught his dark eyes._

_"__Get up and stop crying." Kakashi murmured to her, causing her to glance up at him disconcertedly as she wiped her tears from her face. It did her no good as new ones came to replace them, and her constant whimpering wasn't leaving her any room to ask him questions to his meaning._

_"__Get up, Akari." His voice held an edge, and it cut her from the inside out like a poison that worked its way through her and wrecked her in the process. "Stop being such a baby and stand up."_

_"__B-but I-I-I d-don't-t thi-ink I-I ca-an," A glare was shot at her, and hit her full-on. Kakashi had never treated her like this before, so why—when she needed comfort the most—was he this distant and cold towards her now?_

_"__I don't care if you don't think you can, I'm telling you to stand up and stop your crying." Obito, who had stood behind the siblings and seen the pitiable scene with the rest of Kakashi's team, stepped forward to Akari's defense._

_"__Kakashi, you stop being so hard on her; you just lost your dad, how're you supposed to react to that?! She's just a little girl, and you can't expect her to—"_

_"__Stay out of this Obito." An unknown tone of voice was used to address him, and Akari found herself petrified in the bewilderment of it. Kakashi had always referred and spoken to his teammates kindly before now, so was this how he would rid himself of his grief?_

_"__'T's fine, Bito-kun. I'm okay, and 't's not a big deal. Nii-tan's right, I shouldn't be crying. Papa wouldn't have wanted me to cry, and 'sides I'm not a baby anyways. I'll be okay, but thank you." A quaint smile cowered on her lips, twitching as she fought back the next wave of tears and demanded that it stay still. She couldn't look frail in front of her big brother, he was already mad at her for something and that would only make it worse. And anyway, she didn't want Kakashi to get mad at Obito for something she had done._

_"__I…I think I'n just sleepy." But thanks anyways, Bito-kun._

_"__Well then maybe I should walk you home." I should probably make sure that Kakashi isn't going to get mad at you for anything._

_"__No, I wanna go home alone." Please don't offer help, I can do this by myself. Besides, I don't think Kashi-nii will do anything rash._

_"__I insist; a little girl like you shouldn't be wandering the streets on your own. I just want to make sure that you get there okay," Don't shut me out, I only want to help you._

_With a sigh, Akari acquiesced. Kakashi had been silent through the whole exchange, and neither child could bring themselves to look at him. A thought popped into her mind, that maybe Kakashi was more affected by this than anyone had previously been able to tell. Another assumption that he wasn't even paying attention anymore pressed her to turn to Obito and begin walking away._

_"__I'm sure everything'll work out all right soon enough, Kari-chan. It'll get back to normal before you know it!" She nodded, but it was a distant and vague effect that Obito had to shove aside._

_How can everything work out and get back to normal now? Without papa…and Kakashi acting like he hates me…I can't go back home. It just won't be the same without them the way things used to be. Being tucked in at night, I'll be all alone. When I finally get to go to the Academy, I'll be alone. When I become a full shinobi, I might have a team, but my papa, mama, and niitan are all gone._

_I'm…_

_I'm alone…_

_"__Just remember, you'll always have big brother Obito! I'll take care of you, even when Kakashi acts like a jerk," His attempts at cheering her up forced a meek grin from her, and she held her hand out to the genin, motioning for him to take it and lead her back home._

_"__Promise?" The faint echo of a question came from the frail little girl, who wiped her face with the back of her black sleeve. Obito smiled down at her, picking up her other hand and nodding resolutely._

_"__Promise. Rin and I'll be here for you, and Minato-sensei too. You're our friend, Akari-chan, and don't forget it." Akari felt her hair being rustled by the older boy, and something was placed on top of her head as she looked up with her tear-stained cheeks. Her empty hand reached up to touch the smooth surface of what Obito had given her, and as her fingers slid across the surface she felt rough cloth scratch at her fingertips. Obito's goggles were missing from his face, and she could see the shining orbs of mica that belonged to the Uchiha as he grinned down at her. She flushed, though Akari nodded anyway and tightened her grip on his hand._

_"__Thanks Obito-nii,"_

* * *

"Minato," Kushina murmured, lifting her head and rubbing her weary eyes. She scoffed at her husband, who was still sleeping soundlessly. "Minato, wake up."

"Mm, five more minutes…" He groaned in pain as Kushina slit her eyes and whacked the back of his head. "Okay! Okay, what is it? Ow, when did you even get that strong?"

"Sh!" she cut him off chastely, "Do you hear that?" A moment of inquisitive silence commenced, and Minato sat to hear it better.

"Is that Akari?" he wondered aloud, pushing the comforter off his legs to stand up and pull a shirt on over his chest. Kushina grunted as she pushed herself from the warm bed, the very beginnings of a baby bump causing her difficulty at the odd balance of weight it caused. Her head spun wildly. Minato was already out the door before she could get him to help her up, but she shook the feeling away and suffered through it.

When she finally made it through the doorway, she saw Akari laying on the couch. She sounded like she was hiccupping, which meant she was having nightmares if the previous encounters with her like this were anything to go by. Minato placed one of his hands under her sideways head, catching her hair even though she didn't seem to notice. His other went under her back, and he held her against his chest while her head lay on his shoulder. She had been crying, from what Kushina could make of the agitated red flesh around and below her tightly-shut eyes. Akari whimpered.

"Minato, I don't think she should sleep in here by herself. We've tried everything we can, but nothing seems to work. It's heartless making her suffer like this." The little girl seemed to be settling down now that she had reached the comfort of someone's arms. Being cradled wasn't something she had experienced often, especially since the incident with her father.

"Then let's put her in our bed and see if she'll sleep through the night." he murmured, yawning languidly while she stirred in his arms. "You should get sleep too, Kushina, you've got someone else to worry about."

Kushina frowned at this, as if having to be reminded of her current pregnancy was hurtful. Not that having to take care of the child itself and instead having to take care of herself was agonizing, but the fact that it would take so long and that she wouldn't be able to work at all until her son or daughter was born. Being unable to work was already having a toll on her general mood, and she busied herself with things that she could still do: cooking everything, cleaning as much as she could, and—this was the usual one—worrying about everyone else to the point that she became angry when other people tried to tell her not to worry. She mostly blamed the hormones for that.

"Alright, but hurry up and get her under a blanket, too. She must be freezing wearing just that t-shirt," she muttered, her voice matching the gentle thrum of a calm ocean. Any fluctuation in their tones could wake Akari up, they knew from experience, so it would be best to remain gentle and submissive even if Kushina felt like beating a hole into her husband's head.

As if reading the redhead's negative emotions in her sleep, Akari cried out. It was muffled by Minato's chest, but her screams were still loud enough to drown out the silence that had engulfed the house. Breathless thuds down the staircase could be heard as Kushina sighed wearily. It appeared that they couldn't hide the distressed girl for long as Kakashi made his appearance, yawning while he held his hands out to his sensei.

"If it's alright with you, Minato-sensei, I'll take Akari with me to sleep. It's not such a hassle if she's quiet, and she causes too much trouble for you two already. She's my responsibility, after all." His half-awake eyes drifted up to the small child, his little sister. Akari was shivering violently now, so much that her eyes flitted open as she buried herself deeper into the warmth of Minato's chest.

"I want a blanket," Kushina grabbed Akari's beloved Kitsune-y from the couch, handing him to Kakashi off-handedly and pulling the child from Minato's hands.

"If you want to take care of Akari, Kakashi, you should start acting like it. She'll sleep with us tonight." Her word was final, and no one would go back on it. It was like a contract being laid down as she spoke, and each word was being engraved into a stone for eternity. Her word was law in this house. Kakashi couldn't refuse to ignore her, even if he tried.

Akari liked them better anyway—she always had and certainly always would. It was like trying to compete with the love from a mother to her child; which was almost what she had become in this family. She had depended on them to help her—and maybe he had as well in the beginning, but by now he could afford an apartment for the two of them. Even with his meager earnings as a child and with his being only a chunin, his constant work had produced fruit. All he had to do was break the news to Akari, who would probably be none too fond of leaving the people she had called "family" thus far, and they could leave.

Of course, even with his plans there would be conflicts. There always were. There would be the problems of childcare during the days when she didn't have the Academy to go to; food to eat; someone to watch her and know how to take care of a child (as Kakashi was sorely lacking here, especially with the problem that potty-training was proving. It hadn't been too difficult during the day, but when she slept she often wet the bed and there was no way he could deal with that); and an uncountable other things that he had only brushed the surface on.

Who would pick her up every day from the Academy and make sure that she didn't get lost? He couldn't do that with his own training with Minato and his team. Who could make sure that she was eating correctly? Kakashi couldn't cook very well, and he wouldn't be able to wake up early enough to get his things together, make sure she was ready for the day, and fix three meals for them each. Who would be able to be patient with a child, when all Kakashi could feel lately was bitterness or annoyance?

When he faced reality, he wasn't good enough to take care of a child. _But_, he'd whine solely to himself, _it's not like I had ever wanted this. Akari's such a burden, and she likes it here better than anywhere that I could take her to. Besides, she needs to learn how to live on her own if she wants to be a shinobi. I'm only doing her a favor by not going easy on her._

But he couldn't deny it when he reminded himself that he _wanted _her to look up to him, instead of that crybaby Obito. He _wanted_ her to respect him, and treat him like a big brother, and maybe the whole idea of spending time with her was daunting, but he wanted her to be his family. Because in all reality, Kakashi was alone without her. It shouldn't mean that much to him, since he still sort of had Rin and Obito, and sure Minato-sensei and Kushina-san looked after him, but they weren't his family.

There would always be that bond that Kakashi could never break with her, no matter how hard he tried. He couldn't be completely emotionless as long as Akari was part of the picture. Kakashi couldn't help but love her, and he hated her for it.

He hated how she could smile so easily after having nightmares on the couch, how she loved to read books and get buried so deeply into them that it was nearly impossible to bring her back to reality, how she could find somewhere else to be in her mind when she stood beside him. He hated how she could be happy, while he had the crushing truth shoved onto him and burdening him this whole time. Why should he have to carry this everlasting weight while she can walk free and be so damned happy about everything?

Kakashi's arms numbly fell to his sides. Akari had stopping whining in her sleep. Kushina shot him a look that he didn't care to decipher. Minato patted his head and ruffled his hair just as his father used to do. It was all nauseatingly reminiscent of a better time.

* * *

There are many people in our planet who will tell you that the world is a beautiful glimpse at a lifetime of joy; a life before nothingness, and a means of escaping that which follows death. There are also those who believe in a life after their death; a heaven or home where each day is paradise.

The truth is probably somewhere between these two extremes. Perhaps this world is mere darkness, and the humans and animals who fondle about in the shadows of it are puppets pulled along on strings by…by something. The cosmos, providence, a capital-G God, perhaps even destiny; although many tend to think of it as fate. Fate is a winding chord that the people are dancing around on—the path our life is to take, the future that we cannot see on our shadowy earth, even the movements that we make as puppets. It is our future, our past, our present, our minds, our souls, our hearts, our everything all coiled up and always longing for something more.

Our fates are the strings that hold us up, keep us moving, and barrel us forward into the unknown which has yet to come. They glow with our attributes, and brighten with our traits, and they mark out how we live and our given duties during the course of our lives. When those strings finally break, and we are unable to stand anymore, we have lost our purpose. We no longer have a destiny, and our fate is sealed. Death is imminent. This is simply how life works.

When the strings held by our mysterious puppeteer are broken, something comes to take our souls. They are valuable, perhaps even re-usable substances of immense power and potential. The puppeteer bends them into new souls to fit new puppets, and new lives are born with new strings of fate attached.

Unless, of course, a soul has been broken. Souls with no potential serve no purpose, and I believe that those are cast away—maybe to a paradise called heaven, or maybe to nothingness called death. I think that those souls, which are polluted and perverted from their original form, become the smog that shrouds the earth in darkness and make the futures of those of us that are living much harder to see. I believe that they, themselves, are the shadows on earth; cast down and useless and utterly broken.

It's poetic, when you think about it. We're all "pulled along by the strings of fate," so to speak. And without a fate, we are utter emptiness. Without a purpose, our lives are meaningless. Without someone or something to live by, we are nothing.

Having a purpose is living. Without one, we are dead men walking. Without purpose, we are empty voids that float along in the wind, yearning for a reason to be alive. Pining for an answer to our existence. Lusting for something that no one can achieve. This is, most simply, human nature.

Still, our winding strings pull us forward, and we cannot flee the call of our fate.

* * *

**A/N: I'm so sorry for letting this drag out for so long! I really didn't mean to do this, but I guess that I'll update every month around this time. The good news about that is that you should be able to pick up on the pattern and check in at the end of every month, and I've got the next 8-10 chapters already planned out. The bad news is that I don't know how often I'll be able to write it, and my Dropbox has been acting up so it isn't syncing with my computer-which means that it'll take a little longer for me to write these things out. Hopefully with more breaks coming out soon, I'll be able to write more and get these things out to y'all quicker.**

**QUESTIONS/REQUESTS FOR MY DEAR READERS!**

**1\. I need a name for a female character. She's strong-willed, a music-lover, and I'm thinking she'll be from an artisan village. Names and meanings of the names would be wonderful, and you can put it in a review or as a message directly to me.**

**2\. What do you think of Akari? I want her to be human, so I'm going to pick at her weak spots for a while, but do you have any odd quirks you want to see her with? And if you want to see her with another character, please let me know so that I can think about that when I write. Your input is VERY important to me!**

**3\. Anything you want to see with this? Any questions you have? Anything you want to say? Advice? Compliments? Hate for how long this took? Anything is accepted, as long as it's not just "I hate this because it's stupid," or "this story looks like it was written by a three-year old." **

**Thanks so much, my lovely readers~!**


	4. Side-tracked and Led Astray

**Ah~ Here we are again my beloved readers! Here's what I have produced for my new chapter (and though not exactly within a short wait period, I got it to you two weeks earlier than I thought I would. Is this good enough for a thanks, my Japanese Dictionary?)**

**Anyway, I'd like to thank:**

**kanna-yamamoto for favoriting my story,**

**Littlebirdd for following and reviewing,**

**B. for following,**

**And ShikiUploadz for your wonderful suggestions and help with picking out names!**

* * *

Somehow, it always came to this. Akari, flinging her lunchbox from one side to the next while holding on to her beloved (and recently washed and fixed) stuffed animal, Kitsune-y and her bag handing haphazardly off of her shoulder, was walking to school by herself. Minato-jisan and Kakashi had left before she woke up, apparently, and Kushina-bachan had left a note behind saying she had the food ready for her to take in the fridge and that she went to the doctor's for a checkup.

Obito-kun had stopped by this morning, mostly to see her and ask if she wanted a hand getting to school, but then realized that he was supposed to be out training with his team and apologized before leaving her behind. At least he had the decency to say sorry before running off without her. It was more than she could say for everyone else.

Akari knew how to get to her classroom by heart, though. It was room D-404, the room for rapidly advancing academy students and those who would be tested soon for the possible promotion to genin. It was amazing, thinking that she could graduate at the age of four years old, and that she could become a big kid and take care of herself while others three times her age were still working at getting out and becoming actual shinobi. She wouldn't have to burden Minato-ji or Kushina-ba anymore, and she would be able to have her own money and an actual team like Obito and Kakashi and Rin. And she could have friends that she trusted with her life, too—not like the people who sometimes shove her in the halls at the Academy or pick on her because of her stuffed toy. And not people who felt like they had to take care of her, like Kakashi and Obito, but people who actually _cared _about her.

It would be a lot of work, passing the exams, but Akari practiced in the time that she had out back before Minato and Kakashi came home at about 7 for dinner. And the things that she had no need to practice—genjutsu and handsigns, for example—were stashed away in her mind for later use or reviews in class.

The road she traveled on was made of gravel, and it felt odd even when she wore her sandals—which were dangling from her fingers precariously because she had to take them and wear them during school hours. Every now and then a sharp rock jutted out or scraped into the soles of her feet, and she'd wince but carry on anyway. Akari knew very well how scratched up her feet would be by the end of the day, but if she got the pain over with now then she could form callouses on her feet and never have to deal with them getting scraped up by her shoes because they'd be thick and coarse. She read that little fact in a book she recently finished.

The Academy building loomed overhead much like any other building, except for the many floors and the sign that sat above the doors to welcome new students. The walls were white on the outside and inside, a little fact that annoyed Akari with the lack of color that it provided. At least the wooden floors were interesting to trace with the eyes, and Akari usually counted the crevices in them twice during the day. They were marbled with alternating shades of brown, and stretched across the floor in different sizes. Maybe if she was careful enough, she could sneak her manga onto her lap and read it—though it would be a little impossible with Kaoru-sensei's sharp eyes and her being seated near the front because she was so small.

Her teacher was quite a bit taller than many of the students, and quite a bit older than most still-living shinobi. His expression was a default of sternness, and his dark eyes only echoed his serious face and the deeply-set wrinkles and curved frown. His head was growing bald, and there were worry lines across his forehead. Along with these observations that Akari had made, Kaoru-sensei was always right and there was no arguing with him. If he said that your shuriken was off by one millimeter, you'd have to fix it immediately or risk being put in a lower-level classroom only to have to take his class once again the next term. There was no getting out of taking his class: Akari knew this from experience, as she had been pulled from his class earlier that year, when she was still just three-and-a-half, and had only been put back into his class this semester.

Suddenly, the ground turned into smoother asphalt and she realized that her trek to the school was about to be over. Just a few more meters before she could get inside and climb the floors to room D-404, and then she could possibly read a little before starting her lesson of the day. Only a few more meters…

The asphalt that she had been walking on met her face in a split moment, and immediately the side of her head and her shoulder exploded into pain. Akari could feel tears pricking in the corners of her eyes, but held them in for the sake of her pride. Her bookbag had been knocked off her shoulder, and everything she had carried was strewn across in an impact zone from one to five meters away. Blood began to drip from the cuts that she had sustained from the pavement, and she blearily glared at whoever had run into her, as her sight had been blurred since she hit her head.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't see you there—do you need some help up, kid?" At this distasteful person's apology, Akari glowered and picked herself up _without _his help. Her head hurt really badly, and she had to close her eyes so that she wouldn't start crying because of the light that couldn't filter through her bleary vision.

"You jerk! _Ne_, watch where you're going next time, _baka_!"

"I said I was sorry!" He answered tersely, falling into the same mood that Akari was in: generally upset and spiteful. "If I walk you to class or something, will that make everything better? Well actually, now that I look at you, you look like you should go to the hospital."

"I'm fine, idiot! Now leave me alone before I really beat you up for this whole thing, _ne_!" The boy sort of laughed at that, and his face slowly filtered through her dilating and constricting pupils.

The first thing she noticed about him was that he was a lot taller than she was-maybe ten or twelve? His hair was dark brown and pulled back in a spiky ponytail, while a grin that she was used to seeing on a certain Uchiha's face glistened back at her. His skin was really tan, and his eyes were half-closed, but Akari could still see the dark brown color in his eyes—as if his whole body had been baked in mud or something.

"That's cute, thinking an adorable thing like you could beat me up when you're probably three and maybe half my size. But since I did run into you, I would feel bad if I just left a little girl to walk to her class on her own! Anyway, what room should I take you to? A-2 for first years?"

"I can get to my own class by myself, you idiot! And for your information, I'm going to room D-404, _ne_," She shouted back, hiding her smugness at his shock behind a stony scowl. It was a common thing when she told people how quickly she had advanced in such a short time. Of course, if it was Kakashi whom she was being compared to, then there would be no doubt that she was falling behind. She'd never be able to get his attention—or Obito's, for that matter—at this rate. If she couldn't become their equals quickly, they'd leave her behind in the dust yet again.

Her thoughts were pried apart as the boy insisted that he take her to her class.

"I said I was sorry for running into you, please let me make it up to you by walking you to class!"

"And _I _said to buzz off, loser. I can get to class on my own without any help, _ne_."

"But it would make me feel better if I helped you out some way."

"I don't care, just leave me alone!"

"But there has to be _something _I can do. Do you need something to stop the bleeding? I could give you something to put pressure on the scrapes, if you want."

"I'm fine, go bother someone else!"

"But you're hurt, and if you go to class like that it'll look like I beat you up or something, and I don't want people getting the wrong idea."

"A loser like you couldn't even leave a scratch on me if we fought!"

"How can you say that when I managed to scrape up your face and shoulder up just by running into you? You know, I'm not sure if I believe that you're really in that advanced class. You probably just said that to make me feel bad, or to impress me or get me to leave you alone-is that why you don't want me to walk you to your class?"

"Can't you take a hint, you bastard?! I am fine by myself, and I _don't _need you to walk me to class, or any other help you could give me! Just leave me alone, _ne_!"

Iruka stood silent, listening to her before a curt grin spread across his features.

"A little girl like you shouldn't be using that sort of language, Miss…I just realized I don't even know your name. Well then, let's start fresh. I'm Umino Iruka, and I'm in class C-2 with Chou-sensei as my teacher." Akari wrinkled her nose at that, frowning at how he was trying to get close to her. He was certainly annoying, but…truthfully a little attention had been what she was craving recently. Being ignored all the time wasn't her forte-not that she'd ever tell anyone that.

"Hatake Akari, class D-404 with Kaoru-sensei as my teacher. It's none of your business what kind of language I use, _ne_." She spun so that her back faced him and began picking up her things and dusting them off. Her plush fox was carefully stuffed into her bag, and she placed that back onto her shoulder (the one that she hadn't fallen on, as it still stung from its kiss with the concrete). Iruka handed her her lunchbox, and she snatched it from his hands waspily. "I don't need your help, either. Or anyone's, for that matter. I can take care of myself."

Iruka eyed her condescendingly, his pride getting the better of him as he couldn't repress his response. "You're sure your parents would approve of you saying that?" Akari eyed him icily, but her heart wasn't in it and it showed in her dull eyes as she wondered what her parents would actually think of her if they could see her.

"I don't have parents," Came her sullen reply, and she began to walk away as Iruka began his array of apologies. He trailed her closely, leaning over a little to speak to her on her shorter level as they walked.

"I am so sorry—I honestly didn't know that. I wouldn't have said anything—I promise I wouldn't have said that if I had known! Let me make it up to you by walking you to class, please, Akari-chan?"

"For the last time, I don't want you walking me to my class! And don't call me Akari-chan, _ne_. It's too personal, and you're not my friend."

"Do you even have any friends?" Iruka wondered aloud, causing his younger companion to fume once again.

"Of course I have friends!" _Well, _she internally mended, friend_ is more like it. I have Obito, and maybe Rin on a good day and I'm feeling gracious to her._

"Who? Why aren't _they_ walking you to class, then?"

"Because I don't need anyone to walk me to class, _ne_!"

"Who are your friends?" Akari looked at the wall to her right, following classes and signs posted in the hallways with her eyes. She ignored him until there was no choice but to answer his prodding.

"Obito Uchiha and Rin Nohara." The older boy nodded at this new information, finding a new place beside her as they walked up the three flights of stairs to Akari's classroom.

"Hey Akari, you said you didn't have any parents, but do you have any family you're living with now? Like, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, older siblings—anything ringing a bell?" She shook her head.

"I live with friends of my family, though. My big brother comes by sometimes, but he doesn't talk to me much and he doesn't take care of me, _ne_. I don't think he likes me very much."

"Your big brother, huh? What's he do when he's not seeing you? Is he old enough to work and own his own place?"

"He's a ninja, like my Papa was. Niisan used to help train me when I was a baby, but now that I'm four I get to train myself since he's never around to help me out. Uncle and Auntie sometimes help me because they're ninja, too, but now they're really busy with work and stuff."

"Now I really feel bad for bumping into you and making you fall; that's so sad."

"_Ne_, I don't need your pity, loser!"

"Hey Iruka," a soothing voice called from behind the bickering black-haired girl and the remorseful older student. Akari turned to glance at the addresser over her shoulder and saw a head of light brown hair. His eyebrows were coarse and darker than his sandy locks, and his eyes were carved into the stone fixture that was his face. If Iruka was around ten, then this guy had to be a teenager with his strong build. She wondered briefly if he had already graduated. "What's this arguing about? Is everything alright?"

Iruka grinned joyously, wrapping an arm around the newest member of their ever-growing group. Akari rolled her eyes at that thought, wishing she had never let him follow her up the stairs. One other student was annoying enough, but what would this guy be like?

"I'm just walking Hatake-san here to class because I knocked her over outside and felt bad about it. You wanna walk with us too, Mamoru? Her class is D-404, so it should be right next to yours."

"If it's alright with Hatake-san, I'd be happy to." He seemed much more polite than Iruka, but Akari couldn't help the nagging sensation that she should just leave them both behind in her dust. She didn't have the time to deal with annoyances like them.

And yet, she couldn't just leave them. This attention—whether initially unwanted or not—felt good. Akari had already discovered that her only friend was truly Obito, but he hardly spent time with her. She couldn't remember the last time she had asked him to play a game with her and he actually said yes. At the funeral, Obito had told her that they were friends, but was she really just a hindrance to him? Was she just a burden for everyone?

"Fine, you can walk with us, too. But this had better not become an everyday thing, _ne_."

Akari was selfish, and she knew it too. If she hadn't been, then she would've ran away or stopped bothering the people who took care of her. But she was happy getting that attention and taking their love, even if it meant she wasn't the perfect shinobi like her big brother. She would continue being a burden for as long as she could. Because at least then, she knew that she was burdening people who would gladly love her for it. They wouldn't leave her behind, and she trusted them to lean on. People like Minato-jisan and Kushina-bachan and Obito-kun, they were the people she loved and they were the people who loved her because they wouldn't complain if she became their burden.

Her strings were tugging her in many different directions, and it didn't matter whether they led her to destruction or peace for she followed the path before her relentlessly. The road would be long and difficult for her, but she would trudge ahead as long as the path was there for her to pace. This was her destiny, and these people she met had to be a part of it. Only time would shed a light on the next few steps in her journey.

* * *

_"__Alright, since you were so eager to wake up at the crack of dawn, I suppose we had better get started. Do you have your kunai knives?"_

_"__Yep!" She chirped animatedly, pulling the tools out to show her father as they checked them off mentally._

_"__How about bandages?"_

_"__Check!"_

_"__And shuriken?"_

_"__Yes,"_

_"__How about Kitsune-y?" Akari indignantly snorted._

_"__Of course, papa. When have I ever not had Kitsune-y?"_

_"__Just checking. What about our lunch?" She held up a bag, filled with rice cakes and some sorts of dumplings that had looked good last night at the market. Impatience was catching up to her as she huffed and quipped at his constant inquiries._

_"__Got it. Can we go now?" Her father chuckled at her eagerness._

_"__Yes, yes. Kakashi's already out on his mission for the day with Rin and Obito…I don't see a point in keeping you here any longer." His lips curved upward sharply into a smile that showed only trouble. "Unless…"_

_"__Unless—?" Her query was shut off by her giggles as she was lifted high above his head by his outstretched arms as she was placed on his shoulders with her hands in his hair as the only rein she had to hold onto. "Yay! Let's go, papa! To the training field! Hurry up, you go too slow! Pick up your feet! It's gonna be all day before we even get there, tōtan!"_

_"__Alright, you asked for it!" His daughter clung to his neck as he raced off towards the unused and blatantly desolate training field, squealing with delight as the wind whipped her dual ponytails around her face like kunai that clawed at her skin. However, she was numb to them; in fact, all she could feel was the jubilance that spending a day with her father brought her. Already she could feel adrenaline in her blood as her excitement grew exponentially._

All day, and it's just me and my papa…

* * *

_"__Your aim is a bit off, so try throwing a bit above the mark to counteract that." The child nodded, bangs aflutter as she did so. Her arm was beginning to feel sore, and her fresh muscles ached from the effort as she aimed and threw again and again. She could hardly feel them over her innate excitement, though, and what she could sense meant nothing as long as her father was there with her. Akari could endure through anything as long as her papa got another day off to spend with her._

_Things like this-this whole "day off", "break for three days", "no missions at all"-only occurred once every blue moon, and even then his days were usually spent resting at home with as little activity as possible. He had to keep his energy for important missions, and had subsequently been neglecting his youngest child altogether. At least she enjoyed spending time with Kakashi, who hadn't cared one way or another about attention from their father. Kakashi was more of someone who relished in the mere presence of a loved one; who didn't need any responsiveness, as long as he knew his family was safe and at home._

_"__Here, those kunai look a little heavy for you. Why don't you try these?" Sakumo held his hands out, showing her what he had pulled from his bag. She interrogated him with her gaze, her eyebrows moving questioningly together as she wondered curiously what he held._

_"__Needles? What'm I s'posed to do with those, papa?"_

_"__They're called senbon, and they're throwing needles. They're a lot smaller than kunai, so it should help with your aim and the speed. Go ahead and take them, but be careful because unlike a kunai those have two sharp edges." Akari nodded, and began to shoot at the target once more. Her aim, as Sakumo predicted, was getting extraordinarily better._

_"__So when're you gonna show me how to fix my handsigns into somethin' cool? Kashi-nii showed 'em to me, but he didn't tell me how to use 'em." Her fingers twisted into a tiger seal, before shifting into a boar and several others before Sakumo could look back to her from the target he had created, which now had a senbon jutting from its center. A perfect bull's-eye._

_"__Hm, well first we're going to have to see what chakra nature you have. I've got a hunch that yours is the same as Kakashi's, because this nature often runs in the family, but you act so different from Kakashi that I'm going to let you try this out." Akari curiously shot him a questioning glance as he reached around to wrench a square of some paper out of his individual bag._

_"__A piece of paper? Is that s'posed to turn into somethin' cool or somethin'? Oh, I know! You're gonna use it for some awesome jutsu and you're gonna show me how to! That's so cool, papa!"_

_"__Not exactly." Akari's cheerful disposition turned sour as she glowered at the item held in his outstretched hand._

_"__So it really is just a piece of paper?"_

_"__It's a special kind of paper that can tell which chakra nature you have because it was made from a tree that lives off of chakra. You'll need to hold it and funnel your chakra into it so that I can know what to do with you for the rest of training." Eagerly, Akari moved to grab the paper with her tiny fingers before she plopped onto the ground with a soft thud._

_"__Funnel my chakra, _ne_? How do I do that?"_

_"__I trust that Kakashi has taught you chakra control?" A nod was his reply before he continued on with an explanation. "Well, it's like you're trying to move the chakra to your feet, except you shift it to your hand and out into the paper. Just picture it in your head," The child closed her eyes tightly in hopes that it would work faster, interestedly peeking every few seconds to make sure that it hadn't changed before huffing and closing her eyes to try again._

_"__I think it's beginning to react to your chakra, so keep it up." The encouragement from her father was the only thing that she was sure could make her concentrate even harder on a piece of paper. Nevertheless, she clenched her lids shut and persevered through the unbearable silence._

_Her lapis eyes cracked open to spot her papa's face, but the look of bewilderment featured there was enough to make her look at the paper in her hand. It hadn't changed much at all._

_"__That's odd, I could even see your chakra around the paper. Hold it out and let me see," It was when she followed his order that he saw it, barely visible and almost impossible to discern from the rest of the page._

_A circle, perfectly rounded and shaped, was bleeding onto the page. Like an ink marking, it dribbled down a bit before it coated the entire paper and left the white circle in the center a blank area. Carefully the ink created a curved line to separate the circle into two halves, coloring in one side black while the other remained undisturbed. When all but a miniscule circle in the shaded area remained, a patch of black fused into the white teardrop shape and stood on its own apart from the shadows around it._

_Akari gasped at the perfect yin-yang sign it created, almost dropping the page altogether if it hadn't been for her father's hands gripping her wrists and plucking the sheet from her._

_"__Is that supposed to happen, tōtan?"_

_"__I've never seen anything like it. Usually a physical change occurs to the paper, not an odd marking like that. It must've been a fluke or something, so let's try it again." Her striking electric blue eyes sparked at his request, but she didn't dare object as long as her father would be here with her._

_Another paper, with a different result. The page instead wrinkled before burning away and fluttering to the ground as ashes. Sakumo chuckled at Akari's mortified expression, relieved at the different conclusion._

_"__I-I didn't mean to, papa, but the paper just…it just went poof! I didn't mean to set it on fire; I don't even know how that happened!"_

_"__It's okay, that's supposed to happen. That means that you have a fire affinity, just like your mother." Akari lowered her eyes as she began to think._

_"__Then what kinda 'ffinity does Kashi-nii have?"_

_"__Kakashi has a lightning affinity, which he gets from me. Usually this sort of thing is a genetic trait-which means that you get it from your mother or father-and I suppose that the first paper was just a chance occurrence. Don't worry about it too much," She nodded, and listened to her father begin his sermon on what kinds of handsigns would be most appropriate for her to use and what jutsus would be good for her to learn._

_Akari sighed, though eager to hear anything her father said, and got comfortable in the lush grass of the clearing._

* * *

_Dusk rolled by before either could even think of rest, and Akari had just begun to learn the many different handseals that could be used with her tiger sign to make fire jutsu. Each time she'd try on her own, a mere spark would form in her hands before burning itself out and leaving her with less chakra after each attempt. She could feel her breaking point, but forced herself closer to it each time nevertheless._

_"__Akari, stop adding that extra handsign. I think it's causing an overflow of chakra, which will disrupt the jutsu before you can even do anything with it." Sakumo instructed, watching her nod resignedly before making an attempt at it again. Once more, the flare spluttered before blowing away as smoke. Her father placed a gargantuan hand on her shoulder, gripping her attention as he turned her from her previous concentration. "I think it's time to go home now."_

_"__No! I can do it, tōtan, just a little longer—"_

_"__You're going to wear yourself out by doing that, and it won't do you any good to continue. You've done well enough today, Akari, but I think we should go home for dinner. It's late, anyway, and sleep will do you good. We can come back out tomorrow, alright?" She grinned earnestly, grabbing the hand which rested on her shoulder with her seemingly infinitesimal fingers._

_"__Okay, papa! That'll make me very happy!" The corners of her eyes crinkled in her beam, her teeth hardly showing but still peeking out from under her lips, and her face radiated the purest form of euphoria._

"Akari-san, snap out of it and throw your kunai! You'll only have today to practice in class before the test tomorrow, and I don't expect that you'll pass if you're just gazing off at whatever other place your mind is in right now." Akari nodded through grit teeth, despising the way that Kaoru-sensei talked to her. Though she was young, she had enough talent to become a genin—like most of the children in her class, all she had to do was wait for the next exam and then she could pass right on through into the big world. Still, her teacher was never happy with what she did. Even if Akari reached perfection (which she was certainly far from in any field), she doubted he could hold back his criticism.

He was like that with a lot of the girls in the class. Tanaka Ayane, the previously leading girl in taijutsu at the school, was always being dragged down by him even when her form was completely accurate and efficient. "You need more power," he'd offhandedly mention, "You're wasting your energy," "Kick higher," "Punch with your whole body, not just your arm," and so on until not even sweet Ayane could feign a smile and work through it. Kaoru-sensei had made her break down and cry on more occasions than Akari could remember. She had left the class before this term had started, though, so Akari hadn't seen Ayane since then. Not that they had been friends or anything beforehand, but Ayane had at least been polite when they worked together in team exercises.

Now that Akari thought about it, lots of girls had been leaving the school for one reason or another. Some had little siblings to take care of, some had a house to clean, some had a paying job that they had to do, and some were even being shipped off to marry into better families—even though it wasn't technically legal until a girl was 16. There was an issue with making and keeping money, especially with the war going on and the limited supplies and everything.

Kaoru-sensei's constant berating of the girls in the class didn't exactly help the masses stay in the Academy. Of course, maybe if he would stop treating the girls like crap because they wanted to help out their village by becoming shinobi, they would actually stop dropping out and becoming half-rate hospital staff or broke merchants. If it wasn't for the thought that she could definitely rub some salt in his wounds when she not only graduated from his class, but also became a high-ranking shinobi (which she would make sure would happen) coupled with her immense willpower, she would've already talked to someone about moving to the other final-term class.

"Loosen up, Akari-san: you look like you're having a seizure when you throw!" She ground her teeth and held in a snarky comment. She knew from experience that it would only mean more work for her and more yelling from Kaoru-sensei. The kunai slipped from one hand to the other, and she shook out her limbs before practicing her throws once more.

"Akari!" Her teacher's harpy voice drilled, causing her to tense and miss the target as the knife left her hand. "Use your right hand, like I showed you how to do it in the example. You missed the target because your left hand doesn't have as good aim as your right one. Go pick up the kunai that missed the target, and try again. Do it right this time."

"Yes, Kaoru-sensei."

"And wipe that grimace off your face before I make you stay after school to clean the classroom. Maybe that'll put you in your place."

"Yes, Kaoru-sensei." As soon as he turned his back to chastise another girl for her improper form, Akari stuck her tongue out and blew him a raspberry. She calmly walked towards the shaved wooden target, feeling the grass against her feet as she had already slipped her shoes off.

It really was a beautiful day, even if it was a bit chilly and she probably should've worn something warmer than her typical black shorts, long ivory socks, and frayed cobalt t-shirt. The sun shone with a warmth that enveloped her inside and out, and if Kaoru-sensei hadn't disturbed her, she would've been content just sitting there in her own sunshine and cinnamon-flavored daydream.

To humor him, she threw a kunai with her right hand instead of the left she had been using. Seeing how she was unused to the motion, the kunai spun wildly in the air instead of straight forward and fast. Checking over her shoulder, Akari switched hands to her mostly dominant one and threw with her left hand until almost every kunai had been driven into the wooden target with a dull thud. The rest of the weapons lay beside her feet on the rough earth.

The class would be over soon, and the test tomorrow would be a breeze (mostly because it wouldn't be Kaoru-sensei judging her kunai-throwing abilities, but another teacher who would "be an impartial judge on behalf of the students"). She had nothing to worry about except what she had packed in her bag for lunch, which came next.

"Hey, Akari-chan," a timid voice murmured, causing said female to jump from her dazed stupor. She spun around to the direction of the voice, biting her lip anxiously before wondering why that boy from earlier was talking to her. Honestly, didn't he understand that she had only let him walk with her because he made Iruka shut up?

"Hi Mamoru-kun." He crept closer, watching her pick up a kunai with her foot and kick it into the air before she grabbed it and bore it fiercely. She thanked kami that she hadn't messed it up, especially since she had practiced doing that about twenty times after school yesterday and had only done it without hurting herself three times.

"You're really good at throwing kunai," he murmured, watching in awe at what he thought was a perfectly mastered trick. "Could you help me out? I'm not very good at ninjutsu, but Kaoru-sensei's too busy with those girls over there to give me any advice. He said that I'm doing well enough, but my form's pretty bad and I can tell. How do you throw so well?" Akari flushed a little at the compliment, but kept it to herself and smirked haughtily.

"I've been training to be a ninja ever since I could walk! And not only that, but I've also got it in my blood. My papa was a great shinobi, and my niisan is too, and papa used to tell me that my mama was, too, but I don't know since I never saw her. My papa told me that since I'm not strong enough to throw kunai well, and my aim's not right, that I should throw higher than the target, so I always aim for the top of the wooden circle over there. Try that and see if it works for you, too."

He nodded, doing as she had commanded. The kunai spun in the air, and though it hit the wooden target, it did not stick.

"Don't throw it overhanded. You have to swing it from side to side so that it doesn't flip like that. And put more power into it so that you can make it go straight. You control it, so you have to know exactly where you want it to go and what you want it to do."

"I control it? But I thought that the wind and other elements would make it go a different direction, or knock it off-balance so that it spins another way. Don't you have to worry about the weather, for instance?"

"No, if you use enough force, it doesn't matter. Watch me," Akari cherry-plucked a kunai from the bundle still resting beside her feet, and she threw it sideways, hitting the target directly above the bull's-eye. "Like that."

Mamoru stared interestedly before glancing down at his own hands in shame. "We only have a week left in school before the final exam, and I never knew how to throw a kunai correctly until now."

"I only learned right because my papa showed me when I was a baby, so I practiced a whole bunch with him and on my own. I don't listen to Kaoru-sensei, because most of the time I already know what's happening and since my papa was a lot better of a teacher than him, I just ignore whatever he says."

"Even so. I started this past January at the beginning of the semester thinking that it would be so easy to pass this class since, you know, Kaoru-sensei is a lot nicer to boys than girls because guys have fought as shinobi for a lot longer than girls have and he's really old so that reminds him of his childhood or something. But I'm finding out how little I actually know about being a shinobi every day."

Akari frowned, thinking silently to herself. _This guy is just gonna tell me all that? Does he really even know me well enough to be telling me this? And why does he even think that I'm interested—just because I let him walk me to our class this morning, he thinks we're actually friends! I guess that I asked for this, though…_

"Hey, Akari-chan, since we have different times for lunch for each class, and since I don't really know anyone else in here, would it be alright if I sat with you for lunch?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"You're annoying." Mamoru frowned.

"You're not nice."

"I never said I was, _ne_."

"But you were nice this morning!"

"No, I was annoyed and wanted to get to class this morning."

"And you just helped me out!"

"Only because I felt like it that one time, _ne_."

"But I thought that since you let Iruka walk you to class you would be nice to me since we're friends. Besides, you don't have anyone to sit with either, I saw you walk to that old swing to eat by yourself outside last week."

"Iruka wouldn't leave me alone, and maybe I _like_ eating by myself. Ever think of that, _ne?_"

"No, because no one likes to be alone." Akari grimaced, mentally pointing out that he was technically right—she hated sitting by herself on the swing with only Kitsune-y and a book. She despised walking home alone, only to get inside and find a note on the counter because of some doctor's visit, or some late night of work. She loathed having to fight Rin for a sliver of attention. Perhaps most of all, she detested being shoved aside for whatever mission came next, with only a word or two muttered to her at best.

But she couldn't deny that it was a lot less of a hassle. If she was alone, she could read a book, or talk to Kitsune-y without second glances shot her way, or think about how pretty the sky is when the sun's at just the right angle in just the right season. Akari didn't have to worry about what others would think or do, or if they would leave her behind or stay with her. Being alone was a lot less difficult, especially when there wasn't anyone trying to become her friend.

* * *

The entrance to Konohagakure sat before her. After hours of being hunted through the kilometers of forestry surrounding the nearest Great Shinobi Village, she had finally made it to a safe haven. All she had to do was get inside, and sanctuary would be given to her after she was interrogated—just as she had read it would be like from the books she had found at home. It was a customary welcoming service for any newcomers who sought shelter or protection.

In her sixteen years of being alive and the three years she had spent imprisoned and as a slave, she had never seen such an awe-inspiring sight. She would be free at last, and she could have her own life without fear of being watched constantly or being worked to death or not having anything to eat. Of course, she had left her parents and younger siblings behind, but she could eventually go back to get them. As long as she was liberated, who was to say that her whole village couldn't be freed? But she was putting her plans before her actions, and she hadn't even walked in the Shinobi Village yet.

"Hey you!" A guard, she supposed, signaled her over to an odd-looking booth sort of shelter that hid two Konoha shinobi from her. "We're going to need to see some identification and know your purpose for entering the village. Do you know how early it is?"

The woman nodded, her face white as sweat dripped from her skin. She panted, and her tongue flicked out to wet her dried lips. She handed over her old hitai-ate from before she had been imprisoned, showing the four long streaks that had been crafted into the metal as a sign of her previous village.

"Here you go, now please let me in. Take me to whatever interrogation site you'll need me at, I'll provide my fullest consent and support, just don't force me to stay out here like a sitting duck." She grew insistent, and the two guards realized this before nodding and pulling out a pair of chains.

"We're going to put these chakra chains on you just to be sure that you don't try anything. You can take your matters up with our Interrogation Corps later, right now we'll get you into a protected home so that you can be watched over." The girl nodded, willing to take whatever chances she could. It didn't matter if the person she lived with would be benevolent or demanding, as she was more than ready to stretch out on a limb and reach for whatever help would be given to her. If this person showed any signs of hatred or disgust toward her, she could run again. It seemed that she was rather good at that.

* * *

**A/N: Okie dokie, so what'd you think? I love the reviews so far, but even more might cause me to consider getting these chapters done quicker ^^**

**Who is this odd recurring character whose name we still do not know? Is this another developing plot line on the side? I'm thinking about letting you guys in on the secret next chapter, so stay tuned for that!**

**Also, if anyone else has any requests for character names, I would be glad to hear them! I've got some pretty good ones in mind, but I want to see everyone's input. Remember, you can either respond in a review or as a message to me, and I'll probably answer within a day or two. I'm not critical about your submissions (or I hope not at least, I don't try to be mean :'Z), but I'd like to hear more from you guys.**

**Anywho~have a wonderful day/night/afternoon/whatever time it is when you're reading this, my beautiful readers! See ya next time~**


	5. To Keep a Promise

**A/N: As usual, I'd like to thank all of my lovely readers! You guys are the best!**

**A special thanks goes out to SakuraDagger15, CheddarLord, Thrill-Pair-All-The-Way, and azaneti for following, heather. taft3 for following and favoriting, and Littlebirdd for reviewing!**

* * *

The guards took her to a lone house on the outskirts of the town, promising that they'd be back within the next week. The chains were unwound from her wrists, and the staunched flow of chakra was finally set loose. She wiggled the feeling back into her fingers and rubbed the raw area where the chains had dug into her skin unintentionally.

* * *

"This place is gonna be your new home for a bit. This guy was the only one we could find to guard you on such short notice, so I'm real sorry if you're one of those conservative type ladies." The first guard amiably noted. She didn't dare tell him that it didn't matter who she was with, as long as she could stay away from her village and pursuers. Being ignored would be a fortuitous blessing.

"I'm home!" Akari called out absentmindedly, dropping her books and lunchbox by the doorway as she normally did after school. Somehow she had managed to elude Mamoru during lunch, and neither one of the two idiots had found her after school to beg to walk with her. Honestly the attention was nice, but she wasn't used to being smothered by people-in the literal sense this morning and figurative sense every time after. It was overwhelming, especially when she hardly knew either of them and they were almost old enough as her big brother and Obito.

"I'm out back!" Kushina responded, letting Akari know that it was just going to be the two of them until Minato-ji got back from the Hokage Tower around dinner time.

The little girl sighed, grabbing the hair that fell into her face and pushing it to a different side at random. She should really ask Kushina-ba to help her learn how to pull her hair back on her own. Every time she tried, pieces would fall out and it was never as neat-looking as when her auntie did it. She gripped Kitsune-y tightly in her small fists, pressing him against her chest. The back door was only a few feet away, and Akari was quickly making her way towards it before realizing that she should've taken off her shoes and then shrugging at her lack of tidiness.

Kushina was hanging the clothes out to dry, and being that it was a brisk winter day, was having trouble keeping the sheets and clothes attached to the clothesline that ran from one tree to the next. The brittle leaves on the ground crunched and turned to broken piles of crispy brown matter wherever she stepped. Kushina grabbed a clothespin, sticking it between her teeth as she lifted the next article of clothing over the line. Her hair fluttered around her face like the wings of a hummingbird, flitting here and there unpredictably and never staying still long enough for her to make a clear picture of her surroundings between the strands that covered her eyes. Akari pulled her hair and out of her hair, handing it to Kushina as soon as she lopsidedly placed a towel on the line and secured it with the clothespin in her mouth.

"Thank you, Akari."

"You're welcome," the little girl answered briskly, watching Kushina rope her hair between her hands and pull it together with the band. "Can I help?"

"You need to do your homework." Kushina responded, eliciting an unenthusiastic groan from Akari.

"But homework is boring, ne!" She argued, reaching into the white clothes basket filled to the brim with wet clothes fresh from the wash. "Besides, I already know all the stuff they're teaching, and I want to help you. I can do homework later, if you want."

Kushina made a sour face at Akari's procrastination, but thought her proposition over nonetheless. It might be better on her achy body if she had a helper with her chores, and Akari was ahead in her classwork...

"Fine. But you'd better get your homework done before dinner. Maybe if you ask nicely, your uncle will watch and give you some tips. You said you had that kunai test tomorrow, right?" Akari nodded, grabbing a shirt that belonged to her and a clothespin. She had to stand on her tiptoes to reach the line.

"You know what, Kushina-bachan?" Her response came as a hum, so Akari continued. "I like the autumn a whole bunch more than winter, but I think winter's still pretty great. You have the New Year's Festival a few days after the exams at the end of this week, and winter smells really nice. Also, the breeze makes me happy because it's always blowing my hair everywhere and I like that because it feels good. Especially after long and hot summers. And it snowed once in the winter, too! I don't remember it a lot, but I remember playing in the snow after I got on a big coat and gloves and a scarf and some boots because it was really cold! I don't think I like the cold as much as I like winter, though."

Kushina laughed. The little girl beside her couldn't help but grin with her, her crisp blue eyes shutting blithely.

"I think I like the winter, too, Akari." Kushina simply responded, hanging some sheets onto the line. "Especially when you can look up at the starry sky so early in the night, you know. I think it's one of my four favorite seasons."

"Kushina-bachan, there's only four seasons to begin with!"

"Oh, I can't get anything by you, you silly little girl!" Again they reveled in their little jokes—the tiny moments that had brought them so tightly together in the first place. Their giggles were eventually weeded out, and Akari spoke next.

"Kushina-bachan, do you think I could stay with you forever?" Stunned, Kushina confusedly halted in her laundry hanging and glanced down at the little girl beside her. It was a long time that she spent, simply staring down at Akari and looking fully at the little girl. She was too young to understand anything, too young for her to say that she would have to grow up and leave one day in the future. But she would have to figure that out sometime, and Kushina—as her motherly figure—would have to explain it to her.

"Akari, you can stay with us as long as you want to." The breeze picked up Akari's black locks and set them against her cheeks and face like whips. Her cheeks grew red from the irritation. "Just know that one day you'll have to leave to grow up. You're going to have to start your own family one day, and you might even find a nice boy that you could settle down with."

"But I don't need another family!" Akari rebutted, brow furrowing down to her crisp eyes that cut through Kushina's heart like a knife. "I have you and Minato-jisan and Obito-kun, and that's all I need! I don't want anyone else but you, and I don't want to grow up and leave you behind, either."

Kushina bent over her protruding belly, and pulled Akari's hair behind her ears so that she could see her eyes clearer. Grey met blue in a clash of will. Kushina smiled bittersweetly to the little girl, trying to convey the understanding that she was so desperately lacking. Akari's jaw was set in stone, and she stared down Kushina with all of her stubborn might. Her hands slid from her ears to her cheeks, and Kushina forced Akari's head up so that they could see each other better.

"Silly girl. Growing up doesn't mean leaving your family behind or forgetting about us. It's more like you're becoming your own person, and finding your own family and friends, and maybe not relying on your family so much. Growing up is knowing how to be a grown up and how to make grown up decisions, even if you don't want to. And if you ever need anything, you've got us to back you up and support you. So don't worry about leaving us forever, okay?"

"But I don't want to leave you at all. If that means that I can't grow up, then maybe I never will! I don't ever want to leave you...and I don't ever want you to leave me either. That's why I don't like Kakashi, 'cause he left me behind when I needed him a lot. So you can't do that either because I'll never ever forgive you. Not ever."

"Never? Don't you think that's a bit too much?" Kushina chuckled, standing up with a grunt and a few stretches to straighten her back out again. She sighed passively, angry and annoyed at the fact that being pregnant was taking such a toll on her body. "Anyway, let's get this done so you can finish your homework and I can start dinner, you know?"

Akari exhaled, her pale pink lips trembling into a smile as she reached up and attached another shirt of hers to the line with a clothespin. The wind rustled through the fallen leaves, and the air smelled like spices and household fires, but it was the best feeling in the world for the two workers. Especially when they shared such a moment with each other.

"Now that that's done, let's go inside and get warm, huh Akari?"

"Mmm, okay bachan! Can we get some hot chocolate, too?" Kushina snorted at her question, carrying the emptied white clothes basket. "Of course we're going to have hot chocolate, silly; what kind of a question was that?"

"Just making sure, 'cause I like hot chocolate in the winter! And I also like cookies, and regular chocolate, and candy, and yummy fruits 'cept bananas because those are too mushy and gross. But I like your hot chocolate because you put lots of sugar in it and don't skimp out on the chocolate like jisan does."

"Yeah, well your jisan can't make a cup of water without burning the stove and breaking three dishes somehow. The kitchen is not exactly his natural habitat, you know. Not that it's mine either, but I'm more adaptable than Minato is." Kushina placed the basket opening-side down on the concrete area in front of the door so that she could remember it either later tonight or, and this was the most likely decision of hers, tomorrow morning. If she didn't see the basket there, then there would be no telling when the clothes would get inside. Her forgetfulness was quite the challenge when it wanted to be.

She winced at an awkward sensation in her lower stomach, gaping down at the bump that was causing her dismay. Akari, ever the astute little girl, instantly picked up on this and turned the conversation back to Kushina worriedly.

"Is something the matter, obachan? You didn't look very happy a minute ago, and your face looked painful."

"I think it's just adjusting to the baby that's causing me a bit of discomfort. It's nothing big." The little girl nodded, but she didn't know what her auntie was talking about. Why was the baby hurting her? Didn't it know that she was its mommy, and that it should be nice to her?

"Can we still have hot chocolate?" Her mind instantly flicked back to the most important thing she could think of. Akari's need to get warm was heavily outweighing her worry for Kushina, especially since the tone that her bachan used was something that she had heard lots of times before when she wanted to let people know that she was alright. She didn't necessarily like it, but Kushina wouldn't tell her anything more about the hurt that she felt. There wasn't much she could do to help anything now.

"Of course we're having hot chocolate. It'd be breaking the law if I didn't hand you your sweets now, Akari." A hand flew to her hip as she opened the door and led the little girl inside. "How was your day today? I forgot to ask you earlier, you know. I hope you didn't get into some more trouble with Kaoru-sensei again, did you?"

"No!" Akari retorted sourly, remembering the last incident with Kaoru-sensei bitterly. It left a bad taste in her mouth just trying to recall the look on Kushina and Minato's faces when she came home extraordinarily late one day with her teacher dragging her along to have a chat with her guardians. She hated the fact that he had talked down to Minato as if he were just some dirt despite being named the Hokage, and that he ignored Kushina throughout the whole talk—as if she wasn't even there! That was the first and last time she would try ambushing him from the trees with a kunai. "But Kaoru-sensei was bullying all these other girls, even Ayane-san, and she's the best student in my class! What's he got against girls, anyway? He's just an old piece of garbage."

"Akari," the warning was low but shone with crystal clarity.

"It's true! And no matter what I do, it's never good enough for him but he let this other kid, Mamoru, go even when he sucked worse than I did at throwing kunai."

"Akari."

"So since Mamoru wasn't getting taught by Kaoru-sensei, he came and annoyed me all day because he thought that I was so great when I let him walk with me to class today. They're so annoying!"

"Hatake Akari! I've told you about your language before, and I've told you to be nicer to people, too. You're not going to have any friends if you keep acting like this, it makes you sound like a brat. If you keep insulting people, nobody will like you and nobody will want to be around you. It's rude." The accused puffed her cheeks out, scowling at the claims Kushina-bachan was making. For the third time today, she bit her tongue. Still, it couldn't keep her from changing the topic to another touchy idea.

"Why doesn't Kaoru-sensei like the girls in my class, Kushina-bachan?" The redhead breathed in deeply, feigning a smile for Akari's sake.

It was the first time that Akari had noticed how tired her grey eyes looked as they crinkled around the edges like the paper of a book. Kushina looked much older with the circles under her eyes and yet the bout of acne that had flared up with the latest batch of hormones made her look like she was ten years younger. Her hair held the lightest sheen from a growing number of grey hairs, and Akari wondered what caused those. They hadn't been there the last time she had checked. But then again, when had she checked to make sure that Kushina was okay? It wasn't supposed to go that way, when she was the kid and she was worrying about the adult. At least, she didn't think so.

"How's about we have that hot chocolate?" The pregnant woman asked, watching Akari's face turn from that of a scrutinizing questioner to that of a flighty little girl at the promise of sugar.

"Okay!" Her exuberant reply was met with the familiar, tinny sound of a key being placed in the lock of the front door. Immediately bouncing back from one exciting activity to the next, Akari ran to the door in record time to grip the knob as soon as Minato entered. She closed the door behind him, offering him her heartfelt greetings as Kushina glided across the floor to welcome him.

"Minato-ji, I learned how to do my kunai-throwing better today! Kaoru-sensei was real mean, but he's always like that so I kinda just ignored him." Minato raised an eyebrow at that.

"Shouldn't you listen to your sensei, Akari?"

"Well yeah, but I didn't listen to the parts when he wasn't telling us all what to do. But then I had to show this other kid how to throw his kunai, and he kept bugging me because he thought we were friends just 'cause I helped him." Akari was picked up off the floor, and Minato put her in his arms to look at her better. Kushina grinned wearily and crept back into the kitchen to start making dinner.

"You should be nice to people, Akari. Maybe he just needed a friend. Besides, you need to have some friends that are your age—Obito is an excellent friend, but he's nine years older than you and he's very busy with his training and missions. Why don't you at least give people a chance to be your friend?"

"But I don't want any other friends! All I want is Obito and you and Kushina-bachan and that's it: no one else. Same thing for Kashi, too. I don't like him neither."

"Maybe you would like more people if you'd just give them a chance. Your brother especially—I know you don't see it that way, but he's trying his hardest to be there for you. Don't think for a moment that he doesn't love you, or that you're the only one that misses your father. Kakashi is only dealing with it differently, so don't blame him for not being around."

Akari nodded, but she didn't really understand. How could he say that Kakashi loved her when she had seen him maybe six or seven times in the past few years? He was never around, and he hardly ever talked to her when he was. Most of the time, he simply ignored her like Obito did whenever Rin was around. He hadn't ever been interested when she told him about her excellent grades in the Academy, or how she was one of the youngest kids in her class. It was like telling her to love her father, even though he hadn't cared enough about them to stay with them.

And where did he get that he could tell her who she could be friends with? At least Obito understood what it was like to not have anyone pay attention to you, because he was an orphan, too. He had been there for her, even when no one else was.

"Just remember, you'll always have big brother Obito! I'll take care of you, even when Kakashi acts like a jerk,"

"Promise?"

"Promise. Rin and I'll be here for you, and Minato-sensei too. You're our friend, Akari-chan, and don't forget it."

The memory had tugged her into a daydream, and she smiled at the memory of Obito. Her heart fluttered when she remembered the goggles that he had given her, especially when he said that she could keep them because he had another pair. They always sat on her dresser like a cat that was too lazy to move elsewhere. The goggles were something that brought them together, and it made Akari feel like she was a part of something bigger when she held them in her hands. Why would she need something more than that?

"Minato-ji, don't you want to see what I learned in class today?"

"Of course. After being locked in my office all day, I would love to watch you outside. But maybe after dinner?"

"Mm, okay!"

"Oi, Hatake-kun! Open up, alright?" Some thudding sounded on the other side of the house, closing in on the door quickly. The young woman hid herself behind the two Konohagakure guards, and ducked her head when the door opened. From her position, she couldn't see what the man looked like, but she could hear his bedraggled voice and his yawns.

"Guys, it's hardly even sunrise on a Saturday morning. I know I said that you could stop by anytime, but don't you think that—"

"Never mind that, we've got your next mission with us here." The guards shifted aside and pulled the woman behind them out in front for him to illustrate what they meant. She instantly stretched her back and neck out to their fullest extent, straightening up as she was put on a pedestal. Her body language was regal, but not truly fitting her. "You are to take her to the Interrogation Corps HQ by the end of the week, and then she'll need to see the overseer of our Foreign Affairs and Shelter division. Oh, and she'll stay here for a few weeks because she's sort of paranoid about these people out to get her, and since you're one of the best shinobi we've got we just figured that you wouldn't mind watching her for a bit. You don't, do you?"

Now that she could see him clearly, she studied his features. He certainly looked like a man, with his chiseled face, silvery hair, and almost hardened eyes. His entire face was a paradox of softness and roughness, but it was his eyes that held her captivated. They were dark, and although she generally believed that dark eyes were too secretive to be trusted, she found refuge in knowing that these eyes were open and inviting. Even so, she had to remain careful and closed off when speaking to him. Curt replies would be stationary until she could get a more acute reading of him.

Laughter cut her examination off, and she found that it was coming from the three shinobi surrounding her. It was warm and inviting, but she couldn't quite discern why it was there.

"Earth to Amegakure-Lady, are you listening?" She was startled that the guard was addressing her, and blinked in confusion. "Anyway, we'll leave this to you two. Don't forget to write up a mission report for this either, Hatake-san."

"I will. Take care, you two." It was quiet when they left, and immediately the woman felt self-conscious and awkward. Still, her voice didn't seem to work and her hours of running were finally wearing her down. Her muscles twitched uncontrollably. The adrenaline that she had so desperately relied on was depleted and she had to force her knees to lock so that she wouldn't stumble because of their trembling. She was absolutely exhausted. "Let's get you inside, you look sort of pale. Are you alright?"

She shook her head, but regretted it as soon as the world began spinning in circles around her. Her knees hit the ground before she could regain her senses, and she collapsed in front of the man's house.

* * *

**A/N: So here it is! Sorry if the timing was a bit askew, but I had to wait until a big break in my busy schedule to post this (pfft, busy's right. Watching anime takes a long time, especially if you do marathons of episodes every weekend.)**

**Anywho, I have a few questions for you guys to answer. Maybe this time I'll actually get people answering in either reviews or PMs ^v^**

**1\. What do you think about Akari so far? I know it's only the 5th chapter, but I wanna know if I should fix anything while this is still in the beginning phases of writing. Soon after this, the story's really gonna pick up speed, so I want to get basic character development done now.**

**2\. What do you think about Kakashi? I don't want to make him sound like a bad guy or anything, but I want him to sound human.**

**3\. Any guesses on who Hatake-san and mysterious Amegakure-lady are? Any guesses are welcome, no matter how outlandish they are.**

**4\. Do you think I should pair Akari with someone? In my first draft, I got someone who wanted her with Itachi (which I may or may not already have planned:D) but I would like to hear from more than one person, if you don't mind.**

**5\. Anything else that I might've missed? Anything you want me to add? Anything you want me to explain or tell you about? (Any requests for spoilers will be given answers in extremely vague ways, so go ahead and ask away but it'll be like figuring out a riddle!**

**UP NEXT: The Academy Exams are coming up soon, but will Akari run into some difficulties? Will she get to be a part of her own genin team? What will we find out about Hatake-san and the Amegakure-Lady? Will I actually use their names? Who is that annoying Mamoru, and why am I introducing Iruka? Where has Obito been in all of this mess? Will Kakashi make another visit? Tune in next time to figure out!**


	6. Futures Unfolding

**A/N: Thanks for waiting so patiently, you guys! I have finals these next two weeks and a bunch of papers due for different classes, so I'm not sure if writing anything for this will be an option until winter break. But this semester is almost over, so I'm just trying to hold on for 7 more days until break.**

**Anywho, I'd like to thank:**

**Littlebirdd for the review ^^**

**The Shameful for following**

**MistressTriss for following**

**nanarhee for following**

**Vmorales for favoriting and following**

**Stellar Nymph for favoriting and following**

**And Austin0425 for following!**

**You guys mean so much to me as readers and for your feedback~! I'd love to hear from all of you in my inbox or reviews, if you don't mind. ****Also, this installation has quite a few new names. All you need to know from her class so far are Mamoru and Akari, the others are just additives (for now, at least). Anyway, please enjoy!**

* * *

The pale morning glare burst from Akari's window, hitting her eyes and gently prodding her awake from her twenty minute nap. _Get up, _it demanded earnestly, _there's no time to waste. _Her eyes seemed to be glued shut, but she peeled them open and rubbed them to wake herself up. A yawn slipped past her defense. To retaliate, she shifted her legs from under the covers, letting the chill of the early morning wake her up. Goosebumps formed on her arms and legs, and she could feel the tiny hairs stick up as she shivered. Perhaps her usual garb of shorts and a t-shirt wouldn't be suitable for today.

She removed her pajamas and pulled on an old shirt that had once been Kakashi's. He had given it to her two years ago, back when he was still her big brother and took care of her. It was warmer than the rest of her shirts because it had longer sleeves and was a little big on her. She had to roll the sleeves up a bit to see her wrists. A pair of sweat pants that Kushina had bought a few weeks ago when autumn came around covered her legs. The gloves that Rin had given her for her birthday were sitting on her bedside table, and she tugged them on over her tightened bandages. She wiggled her bare fingers around, watching the fabric sway across her hand and wrinkle. It was like she was taking her friends with her when she carried these things that she had been given.

Her feet were moving across the floor before she could finish putting on her socks, and she flew down the stairs to get a meager breakfast to nibble on while she walked to the Academy. Akari could even hear Kushina cooking downstairs, and she certainly didn't want to miss the chance to see her this morning. Seeing her aunt would be a comfort she'd need to get through today, with the exams being held early this morning and her nerves working overtime.

"Morning sleepyhead. I hope that you're not going to school without your jacket today. If you get a cold and can't go to the ceremony today, then you'll be missing out on going to the ceremony after the exams with the rest of your class because I will force you to stay here and sit in your bed for the rest of the weekend."

"But I don't like that jacket! It's not even warm, anyways. Can't I just wear this shirt?" Akari grabbed at Kushina's shirt, tugging on it and causing the redhead to turn her attention from the meal she was making.

"Okay, fine. I'm not going to argue with you over something like that. If you get sick and miss the ceremony, then you get sick and miss the ceremony."

"What ceremony?" Akari scrunched her face up in thought. There hadn't been any mention of a ceremony in class as far as she knew, but then again she wasn't one of the most attentive students in the Academy. "I didn't know about a ceremony. Ne, what's it for?"

"They don't tell you kids anything anymore? There's always a ceremony for the Academy students who pass the final exams. It's where you get your hitai-ate, as a symbol of becoming a shinobi of our village. If I remember correctly, you get to meet your jonin squad leader and your teammates shortly after the exams. This is the day when your fate is decided, Akari! It's always so exciting getting to meet who you're going to work with for the next few years."

"But I don't want anyone else to work with! Can't I just take Kashi's spot in Minato-ji's squad?" Kushina laughed, shaking her head at the little girl's whining. It seemed that not even Akari's melodramatic temper could cut through her good mood today.

"You're going to have fun, trust me. And you're going to forget all about me and Minato with your new friends and teacher today. I guarantee it." Akari was stricken by this, mouth hanging agape as her eyes bulged at these words.

"But I don't wanna forget about you!"

"Oh, pipe down and go ahead and eat your food. Minato said that he'd be here to walk you to school if you'd wait for him, but if you're not ready in time you'll be late for your exams. You still need to brush your teeth and grab your things from wherever you stashed them all over the house."

"I didn't _stash _them anywhere, I know exactly where they are, ne!"

"You probably shoved half of them under your bed, and the others are somewhere in the mountain of clothes in your closet."

"Nuh-uh! Only Kitsune-y's in the closet, and all my other ones are beside the door so I only have to grab them when I get out." The scent of fried eggs flooded Akari's senses, and she could feel her mouth beginning to water at the smell. She hadn't realized how hungry insomnia made her until she smelled the cooking and felt her stomach rumble and roar in its obnoxious communication with her.

The stove was turned off with a twist of Kushina's hand and a dull click from the knob that controlled the heating surface. A flourish of her hands lifted the pan she used to cook and dumped the egg on top of a bowl of fluffy white rice, leaving Akari to grab her breakfast and move to the wooden countertop in front of the oven. As Kushina washed off the pan in extremely cold water (as the pipes were freezing due to the frigid temperatures), she took the time to look at Akari.

Her eyes were a little sunken, and dark circles fell underneath her blue eyes, which were fogged over from exhaustion. She yawned lethargically, rubbing her eyes with little fists and brushing her hair out of her face. Her chopsticks looked too big for her still-so-tiny fingers, though she didn't have any trouble shoveling her food into her mouth. Akari would chew on it for a minute or two before heaping more egg and rice into her mouth without finishing the previous morsels. Kushina was surprised she hadn't said anything about it lacking any sugar or other sweeteners.

"Kushina-bachan, can I have some chocolate chip pancakes tomorrow? I don't like this. It's not sweet enough and it doesn't have much taste, really." There it was.

"Oh, just shut your trap and eat your meal."

So she did, grateful to have a warm—albeit bland—meal to eat in the first place, but wary of Kushina's ever-changing moods. Her chopsticks fluttered down as she finished, and she wiped her face with a sleeve of her shirt to remove the remnants of the meal from around her lips. Kushina was silent for a while, just staring at the little girl sitting in front of her. Akari stared right back, as if issuing a challenge.

"I win," she murmured, watching Kushina's face turn to confusion as she expected Akari to elaborate. "You blinked, so I won the staring contest."

"What are—?"

"Akari, are you ready to go?" She instantly recognized the voice as Minato, and Akari jumped out of her seat in anticipation and excitement to open the door. As soon as she did, she was greeted first by a glacial blast of air that carried the scent of frost into her face and cut deeper into her flesh than a kunai could. Minato stood behind the wind, but he quickly found his way inside and shut the door behind himself. Akari shivered at the coldness, but quickly recovered from it and held her gloved hands up to Minato so that he could pick her up off the ground. It was so much warmer being able to rely on his body heat as well as hers.

"I need to get Kitsune-y and my bag, and then I'll be good, ne." Minato put her down and watched her run down the short hallway and up the stairway to her room on the second floor.

"I don't understand where she gets all her energy." Kushina muttered, washing off her dish and the bowl that Akari had eaten out of. "The girl goes weeks without sleeping. I don't understand how she's still working properly with this insomnia she has."

"She's a little girl, let her have her fun while she's still a kid."

"I didn't say anything against her having fun, Minato. I'm just saying that maybe you should talk to her about getting more rest at night. She listens to you more than she does to my nagging."

"That's because you're always nagging, so we have to tune out _some_ of it." Her glare made him reconsider his slip of the tongue. "W-well, I mean…"

"Just keep talking. Let's see just how deep you're digging your grave." Minato's smile looked extremely forced and rather awkward when Akari came down the stairs, and it caused her to giggle at the sight before her. Kushina must've gotten mad at him for something, with her dangerously smug grin and sharply cutting grey eyes.

"I'm ready to go now, jisan!" She called out, grabbing both of their attention and watching them smile down at her. As Akari walked to the door, she grabbed a strap on her bookbag and slung it over her shoulder.

"Then let's go." Out the door they went, down to the gravel road by their house and in the direction of the academy. Akari's fingers were cold, and she found herself breathing onto them to warm them up. She found out quickly that fingerless gloves were pretty useless during winter. Minato noticed and hefted her into his arms, letting her press her cold hands against him to keep warm. "Shouldn't you have gotten a coat, Akari? It's too cold for you to walk to school with just a shirt and pants."

"You sound like Kushina-bachan, Minato-ji." Akari puffed her cheeks out, pouting as she remembered her aunt's scolding earlier. She really hoped that she wouldn't get sick, just so that she could shove it in Kushina's face that she hadn't known better for once. But if Minato was agreeing with her, maybe she should've listened.

"Hm, well it's true I suppose. If you're going outside like this, you should wear something over it so that you don't get sick. I would hate for you to have to miss seeing your team for the first time."

"Now you really sound like auntie, ne." Akari put her head on his shoulder, letting him carry her to class. It was quiet while they walked, especially since it was early and too cold for many of the market vendors to be outside. The occasional person was walking along the main streets on business or otherwise, but other than that it was desolate. Even so, a warm scent of fallen leaves and spices filled the air with the irregular bursts of wind. The hair that stuck to Akari's neck and face were blown aside in the currents, and she shivered every time they attacked her.

"I don't suppose that you've been sleeping well lately with all of the times I've found you out and about by the time I've woken up. Why haven't you been getting your sleep?"

"I don't need to sleep, I'm fine. And anyway, I can't go to sleep even though I lay down in my bed for hours, ne. I'm just not sleepy, jisan." Minato continued walking into another corner, and an old woman passed by them with freshly baked bread in her arms. "An' all the doctors said it was normal for me, ne. I don't understand why you and Kashi are so upset with me about it."

"I never said that I was upset with you, Akari, I just want you to take care of yourself. You're going to be a big girl on missions when you pass this test, and I want to know that you can be independent enough to have that responsibility. If you can't even go to sleep by yourself, I'm not sure if I want you going off on your own."

"Jisan," Akari mumbled, suddenly dismal at her uncle's worrying. She really couldn't stand letting him fret like that, especially when she knew that she was the reason why he was so upset. "Don't worry, jisan. I'll be alright on my own, and I'll really start trying to sleep now. And even if I was going out with my team, I wouldn't _be _alone, because I'd still have them. So…so please smile, ne? I don't like seeing you upset, jisan."

Minato tenderly smiled down at her, kissing the top of her head. There were instances like these every so often, when she showed her affections in such a loving way. Other times she would just get frustrated when trying to show a softer side and simply give up, but there were times like this when she would just become a normal child.

"You need to stop eating so many sugary things, they make you too sweet." Akari became exasperated with his response to her request, and snorted out an undignified retort.

"That's not how it works, jisan." It was quiet for a while, with only the breeze distracting them from the silence of the early winter morning. The sun was waking up to fully greet them by now, and it was beginning to warm up the village in return. Even so, gusts of wind caused Akari to keep brushing her bangs from her eyes. She watched their tracks from behind, looking at the street as it smoothed out the closer they got to the Hokage Tower.

"So today's the big day, huh? You'll be able to graduate in almost the same time as Kakashi, isn't that right? I guess it's in your genes though." Akari frowned at this and Minato eyed her for a reaction. It was generally like this when he mentioned anything about Sakumo—and lately Kakashi had caused the same thing. She would tense up and isolate herself, like she had sometimes done in the first few months after Sakumo's death. Minato still had a hard time convincing himself that something so abysmal could've happened to their family.

"Do you think Papa'd be happy with me?" Akari muttered into his shoulder.

"What was that?"

"Nothin'." And then it was quiet again, but neither one minded much about that.

Minato put her down when they were in sight of the Academy building, but Akari clutched his hand tightly. White-hot adrenaline was rushing through her, but it was rapidly cooling to a frosty anticipation as she seemed to shift closer and closer to the side of a cliff. Doubts raced towards the front of her mind, and she wondered if it was a mistake taking it this year. It would be embarrassing to not be good enough to become a genin—to have to say that she failed the exam and wouldn't be participating in the ceremony of team assigning. Would anyone think less of her if she backed out now? The blond hokage beside her seemed to pick up on the dread she was feeling, and gently ruffled her hair.

"It's all right to be nervous, Akari. I'm sure that everyone is during things like this." Akari put on a brave face and frowned as much as she could. She stood up taller, as if the very assumption that she was feeling uneasy was a claim of disgrace to her ancestors.

"I'm not nervous!"

"If you say so." Minato blandly stated, unconvinced by her exclamation. "Either way, I think that you're one of the best students in your class. Especially since you were taught from such a young age. I think you've got a pretty good chance at being put as a genin this year, no matter what anyone else says. You need to believe in yourself, and everything else comes after that."

"That's easy for you to say, since you're the Hokage. I bet you never feel nervous about exams since you're an adult and you already took all of yours."

"Well, you're halfway right, but I still get anxious about things." When Minato saw her incredulous look, he continued. "Like I said, everyone gets nervous every now and then. But I think you should hurry on to class, it looks like someone's waiting for you."

Akari glanced up in the direction that he was looking. A boy in a white hat with a puffball at the top and strings that stretched past his ears was standing by the entry to the outside area surrounding the Academy building. A dark grey hoodie was covering his body, and long pants and boots covered his legs and feet. He looked absolutely stupid standing out there, as he was obviously cold based upon the redness in his cheeks, nose, and ears and the fact that he was shivering. _Badly_.

"H-hey Ak-kari-ch-chan, h-hi _Y-Yond-daime_-s-san." Akari frowned at him, clenching her fist around Kitsune-y's protesting plush body and a strap of her bookbag.

"Mamoru-san, you idiot, what're you doing out here? Don't you know it's like a bazillion degrees below zero? You're gonna get sick, dummy." Minato patted her shoulder, a gentle reminder to recall what he had said previously about the subject of making new friends. Akari relented with a disgusted sigh. "Fine. Bye, Minato-ji, I'll see you after the exams. Come on, Mamoru-san, let's go inside."

Her gloved hand left Minato's as she waved goodbye and flounced off, leaving the other boy to bow respectfully and trail behind her. He shook his head at the two children, but walked off towards his office in the Hokage Tower.

"Hey, Akari-chan, you never told me you knew the hokage. Why was he holding you like a baby?" Akari puffed her bottom lip out, furrowing her eyebrows and setting her mind to not speaking to the boy. And she didn't. Well, not until they got inside, at least.

"That's none of your business, stupid."

"But what about your mom or dad? How come I never see one of them walking you to school?"

"Because they're dead, _baka_. Now leave me alone, if you can manage that simple task for once." Mamoru sighed, but it wasn't so much melancholic as it was a grim understanding.

"Yeah, my dad's dead, too. And I ran away from my mom a few years ago because she drank a lot. She didn't hit me or nothing, but she just kinda ignored me and left me to be taken care of by my cousin, and I didn't like that because she was always nagging me, you know? So I ran away and came here because she told me she met my dad here and used to tell me all about this place, so I thought it'd be better than sticking with her and here I am." Akari showed no major outward emotion, but a hurricane was beginning to form in the pit of her stomach. She could not only relate to Mamoru—the same Mamoru that she had griped about for following her to class every day for the past week—but she understood what it felt like to be ignored. To top it all off, there was still fact that the exams were quickly approaching, which also contributed to her morose silence.

"Oh, I didn't mean to make you sad, Akari-chan. We're friends, so I should be making you happy, right?"

"_Ne_, we're not friends, _baka_!"

"But you're letting me walk to class with you, Akari-chan! I know that if you wanted to, you could've outrun me even when I first met you the other day." She looked up at his face and cursed the fact that she was so short. It was so disorienting having to continuously glance up at the same person that she was previously insulting.

"Tch, you're a moron. You know that, _ne_?" Mamoru grinned stupidly, and Akari couldn't help the involuntary twitch in the corners of her pale lips. She fought a raging battle for her self-control. "Speaking of morons, where's Iruka today? Class hasn't started, and it's weird to find one of you without the other." Mamoru nodded, his hat jiggling on his head and his hair shifting around his face.

"Yeah, he went to talk to his teacher about the exams today. I think he's asking if he can take them too, since he's been doing good in his class and is a lot older than the other students. So I decided to wait for you so that we could walk to class." Mamoru looked down at her stiff face, and when she didn't insult him he started laughing. "Cat got your tongue all of a sudden? Or are you nervous about the exams?"

"I'm not nervous!" Akari flushed and pouted under his skeptical stare, and he raised an eyebrow at her unconvincingly.

"That's a lie. You haven't even insulted me yet, so that's how I know." She opened her mouth, but her retort died in her throat when he continued to speak as they walked up the stairs to the third floor. "I'm nervous too, really. I'm not the best at ninjutsu or genjutsu, but I'm really good at taijutsu so I hope we're gonna be graded on that. I'm sure that you'd do better than me, anyways."

"Shut up, you idiot."

* * *

"As you all know, today we are taking the genin exams." Kaoru-sensei droned intimidatingly. Today, however, not even his monotonous speech could drown out the excitement and tension in the air. There wasn't any talking today. The students had a vague idea that they were competing against each other for the top scores and best placements in the groups.

"I will not beat around the bush: there are twenty of you in my classroom and twenty other students in Chou-sensei's classroom, plus the extra three who have gotten permission to take the exams prematurely. That makes forty-three of you taking the exams. There is only enough room for nine teams of three, meaning that there will be sixteen students in my class again on Monday, taking this same exam next year. You will be able to see the scores posted outside on Saturday evening, sometime around 18:00. Those that pass will be able to take part in the ceremony held promptly at noon this upcoming Monday afternoon once all of the scores have been tallied and marked, and you will be responsible to attend the team assigning afterwards. Let that sink in for a little bit. To those of you who have been slacking off lately, not paying attention, or staring at books while I've been talking will not pass this exam." Akari set her head in her hand as she leaned on the table, eyes downcast and following the lines in the wood. His words seemed to be directed specifically to her.

"In a few minutes I'm going to have the boys stand in one line and the girls stand in another. There will be two teachers including myself grading the boys' examinations, and Chou-sensei will be grading the girls. Now that we have that out of the way, I wish you all the best of luck in your test. Remember that each and every one of you taking it in my class can make the cut, so don't be hostile towards each other. Please also note that if you bomb this test, I will not be kind to you on Monday and will expect extra work turned in and plenty of excess practicing completed this weekend. As I call your names to come to the front, I'd like you to form two neat lines—girls on the right, boys on the left.

"Tanaka Ayane." Ayane moved to the front of the class elegantly, a warm and inviting smile eternally plastered on her face. There would be no doubt that she would pass, being that she was at the top of the class, even surpassing many of the boys. Still, she fidgeted with the long sleeves of her shirt, and her muddy brown eyes drifted uneasily across the classroom from one face to the next. She was beginning to understand that this would separate her from some of the classmates she had been with for years, her friends that had moved up classes with her. Some would be left behind to complete the courses again.

"Chimori Kasumi." A mousy-haired girl from the back started as her name was called next. Akari could hear her loud breathing as she passed her at the end of the walkway to the front of the room. Her knees were shaking as she stood behind Ayane, but when she patted Kasumi's head, the anxious girl forced a smile. She looked like she was waiting for her own funeral.

"Senju Mamoru." Mamoru stood up, and Akari watched him take a deep breath before replacing his worries with a stunning grin that made him look like an idiot, in her opinion. His brownish-hazel eyes sparked with amusement as he walked past her, patting her shoulder and causing her to roll her eyes at his antics. He stood at the front of the class, marking the line for the boys.

"Kaito Natsumi." Natsumi grinned foolishly, jumped up from his seat and ran down the walkway to the line with Mamoru and Nori. He was generally a no-good prankster, who enjoyed basking in the glory of his stupidity. Once again, Akari rolled her eyes.

"Katsu Nori." The named boy stood and calmly walked down the aisle. He reminded Akari of Kakashi, not in his looks, but the way they both moved and acted. Nori always seemed utterly composed, hardly ever spoke a word, and his harsh black eyes and hair created a face that was nothing less of statuesque. Her attention focused back to the lines in the floor as more names were called and more students walked to the front of the classroom.

"And now that that's over with, I'd like those of you called to the front to wait outside of the classroom. I will be with you shortly to escort you to the halls where you will wait for your exam proctor to be with you." Akari's gaze shot up at the proclamation, and the knowledge that she had not been called up to the front. Her head spun back to survey the rest of the classroom, but she was the only one left. Frantic giggling was heard from the class when she stared at them in misunderstanding. They filed out one by one, but Akari was left behind. She stood up and grabbed Kitsune-y, running to ask Kaoru-sensei what the problem was.

"Kaoru-sensei, you forgot about me, sir."

"No, actually, I did not forget to call your name. That was actually—I wanted to talk to you about that." He stared down at her, and although it intimidated her a bit she didn't show any signs of backing down from her questions. Akari stared right back at him. "Akari, how old are you?"

"I'm four."

"How old are the other students taking the exams? I'm not sure that you're ready to become a genin, simply because nobody would take you seriously. Honestly, I don't think anybody would ever listen to you, and you're just not cut out for the kind of training that the older students are going to go through. You're not only little, but you're a little _girl_. You don't even know how much of a disadvantage that puts you at. They shouldn't even give you girls the opportunity to become shinobi." Akari slit her eyes and put her hands on her hips, just as she had watched Kushina do before.

"You listen here, Kaoru-sensei, I'm going to be even better than you someday real soon and you're going to let me take this exam whether you think I should or not because I finished this class and I never want to see your face again! And so now I'm going to walk out into the hallway with the other girls, and after today you won't have to see me again. I never really liked you in the first place, and I know the feeling is mutual, so just let me get out of this class so that neither of us has to have anything to do with the other again. I'm gonna pass this exam and become one of the best shinobi in Konoha, and then even you'll look up to me! So move out of my way before I make my own path and start pushing you."

Which was how she ended up with detention and cleaning the board on Saturday. However, when the situation was explained to Kushina, and later Minato, a hasty chat was held with Kaoru-sensei after her punishment was carried out the following day. It was mostly filled with a certain temperamental pregnant woman barking about how he shouldn't treat her any less than he did his other students, how he should stop being so misogynistic (whatever that meant), and that Akari should be able to take the exams just like every other student. She said how she could understand that Akari had no place to talk to him like that, but he had no place to withhold a test from her without her permission.

Minato mostly just watched, and helped calm down Kushina before things got out of hand. Akari's gaze was cat-like and extraordinarily smug. Her mouth twitched when Kaoru-sensei relented when Minato ordered him to let her take the test. Perhaps she was acting like a brat, but getting her way felt so good.

She promptly took the exams and was scored with the rest of the students in the other classes. Akari felt mildly concerned about the taijutsu she had to perform, but she knew that her genjutsu and ninjutsu were at least as good as Ayane's, which meant she had a fairly good chance of getting a slot on a team. The results were in later that day, and at the top was a name that she hadn't recognized before: Uchiha Itachi. Akari shrugged it off, her eyes bewilderingly searching the page for her name. She found it beside the number 4, right beneath Ayane-chan and Nori-san's. A few numbers down, hanging nearby the 9, was Mamoru's. He had made the cuts as well. Down near the bottom, alongside the number 23 was Iruka's name. Akari was impressed that he had made the cuts, given that he hadn't taken the final advanced class.

The wintry cold couldn't even touch her skin anymore, and she felt her eyes start to water in relief as she ran home. Akari couldn't wait to tell her family the news.

* * *

**A/N: So, did you like it? Eh? Ehhhh? I think that next chapter I'll introduce her team and show some slight character development in certain people *cough, _Kakashi_, cough*. Anywho, we will get to meet her jonin teacher who is my favorite character so far (I haven't exactly _written _for her yet, but I like what I've thought up for her. I think you'll either love her or hate her, it's intended either way.)**

**Also! Also, also, also~ Who do you think should be in her team? Please keep in mind that while I do value your input, I also have a few ideas of my own-however, that does not mean that if your ideas are the better ones, I will ignore them. I really love to hear stuff from you guys.**

**As for how this is going to work out, plot-wise: I think I'm going to stick to the main plot as much as I can. Maybe change a few ages here, switch these events up there, but the major things will definitely stay the same, sorry guys. So things like the Kyuubi Incident (that I actually can't wait to write for), Uchiha Massacre (another arc I'm excited about), and Naruto being alone for most of his younger years (you'll see later) will still be there.**

**I'm also thinking about splitting this up into two books, with this one dedicated to before the relative time of the Uchiha Massacre, and the second one after a break. You can see how long I'm thinking of making this project. I want to pick back up either once Naruto comes back for the Shippuden anime/Part 2 manga, or when he's taking the Chunin Exams-I've still got so much to figure out with that, though, so I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. If you'd like to voice something about that, I'd be really grateful to hear it and probably more open to anything because I can really start worrying about it later.**

**Anyway, thanks for reading and have a nice day/night/afternoon/dawn/whenever it is wherever you are! Love and huggles to my dear readers!**


	7. Child's Tidepool

"Let's get you inside, you look sort of pale. Are you alright?"

She shook her head, but regretted it as soon as the world began spinning in circles around her. Her knees hit the ground before she could regain her senses, and she collapsed in front of the man's house.

The next thing the traveler knew, she was being roused by a coarse but warm cloth that gently pressed against her forehead. It felt nice, but she knew that there would have to be a few things to clear up between her and her new housemate/protector/cell guard. She felt the cloth move from her head, and she saw the man from earlier in fuzzy vision.

"Forgive me if I woke you up, I didn't mean to. You looked tired, and I can hardly see your face from all of the dirt, so I figured I'd clean you up a little." Immediately her muscles tensed. _That meant that he had to have been touching her the whole time she was asleep,_ which was something she was certainly not comfortable with from some stranger she had just met outside. "Just relax, I didn't take advantage of you or anything while you were out. But it does make me wonder what happened to you to cause you to run like that all the way here. Did something like that happen?"

The further tautening of her muscles was all the answer he needed to know that this conversation was over.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry. I'm just here to protect you for now, so I guess I should lay off of that for a while." He opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it and shook his head. "I guess I should introduce myself to you at least. My name is Hatake Sakumo, but you can call me Sakumo if you'd like."

"I'd prefer not to." He smiled at her kindly either way, and she watched his shoulders shake with the silent laughter he withheld from her. Hatake turned to rewet the cloth that had previously been on her forehead before explaining himself under her scrutiny. Something about that name seemed familiar to her, though she couldn't place how she knew it in this half-minded state she was locked in.

"That's the first time I've heard you talk, you know." She flushed a little, but relaxed a bit. The mattress that she was lying on was a little too soft for her tastes, but it helped with her sore muscles. Saying that she ran a marathon wouldn't be enough to describe what she had done. "And I would like to know your name, if it's not too much to ask."

"Kira." Came her gruff mutter moments after the debate held in her head. "My family name is my own information."

"Understandably." Hatake responded, setting the cloth on her forehead and fixing the blanket around her. He hesitated once again. Kira watched his lips form a smile again before he held out his hand to her. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Kira-san. I hope we can at least remain civil with each other while you stay here."

"Likewise, Hatake-san."

The pale morning glare burst from Akari's window, hitting her eyes and gently prodding her awake from her twenty minute nap. _Get up,_ it demanded earnestly, _there's no time to waste_. Her eyes seemed to be glued shut, but she peeled them open and rubbed them to wake herself up. A yawn slipped past her defense. To retaliate, she shifted her legs from under the covers, letting the chill of the early morning wake her up. Goosebumps formed on her arms and legs, and she could feel the tiny hairs stick up as she shivered. Perhaps her usual garb of shorts and a t-shirt wouldn't be suitable for today.

She removed her pajamas and pulled on an old shirt that had once been Kakashi's. He had given it to her two years ago, back when he was still her big brother and took care of her. It was warmer than the rest of her shirts because it had longer sleeves and was a little big on her. She had to roll the sleeves up a bit to see her wrists. A pair of sweat pants that Kushina had bought a few weeks ago when autumn came around covered her legs. The gloves that Rin had given her for her birthday were sitting on her bedside table, and she tugged them on over her tightened bandages. She wiggled her bare fingers around, watching the fabric sway across her hand and wrinkle. It was like she was taking her friends with her when she carried these things that she had been given.

Her feet were moving across the floor before she could finish putting on her socks, and she flew down the stairs to get a meager breakfast to nibble on while she walked to the Acade—

She smiled to herself like a jubilant fool. Her days at the Academy were finally over. Today was her actual graduation day, when she would be able to get her hitai-ate and start her path in becoming the best ninja in the world. She would meet new people, and though her heart fluttered in anxiety, Akari couldn't contain her excitement at the more-than-welcome change. No more early morning tests, no more stupid and prejudiced teachers, no more sitting at a desk all day with annoying classmates—she would be freed from all of that with the receiving of her hitai-ate today. From this day on, Akari would be an actual shinobi.

As Akari slid down the stairs, a firm grip on the rail for support in case her foot slipped, she yawned. Although her sleeping had been getting better—an hour or two a night, by now—it still couldn't make up for the time she had already lost. Her body protested against using energy, and migraines sapped her willpower like a mosquito sucking up blood. It was awful when one of the spells attacked her, as they were ruthlessly vicious.

"Hey Akari," a groggy voice called out to her, making her stop dead in her tracks on the second-to-last step. At the foot of the staircase stood Kakashi, his eyes half-shut and a concealed yawn on his face. His mask was thrown haphazardly across his cheeks and nose, and Akari still couldn't understand why he had worn it since she could remember. "I heard you passed the exam this weekend."

"Yeah," she replied halfheartedly, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She didn't move any closer to him. If anything, she felt like backing away, up the stairs, and back to her room. "Weren't you out on a mission? I thought it was supposed to take up two weeks, not six days."

"I wanted to get back to see if you'd passed. I didn't think that they'd let you take the exams, since you're so young." There was no trace of a smile on him anywhere. No happiness radiated in his eyes, like Minato's had when she told him. Kakashi's face looked deadpanned, and it made him look like a stern old man when she coupled it with his silver hair. "I'm not sure that it was the best thing, letting you take the exams. You're still just a little girl, you shouldn't be out fighting yet."

"I can fight if I want to! It's my choice, and I don't want to sit here while other people get to go out there and—"

"You don't know what you're talking about, Akari." He cut her off sharply, and the venomous retort she had poised on the tip of her tongue when he sighed and continued speaking. "Listen, you don't want to grow up too quickly. I want you to enjoy being a kid because when you grow up, you realize that the world isn't just a game. You could _die_ out there, Akari. You're not as invincible as you think you are and you're too reckless."

Kakashi took a deep breath, steeling himself for the next piece of conversation. His little sister might hate him, but he had to get this off his chest and set her straight. "Kushina-san told me how you reacted to your sensei in school. Haven't I told you before that to be a shinobi, you must follow the rules?"

"So does that make me trash then, Kashi?" she snapped at him waspily, uneager to let an argument go by without having the last word. "Because I don't care what you think about me. I don't care if you die or if I never see you again. I hate you. And if you don't want to be my big brother, then I don't want to be your little sister, so just stop talking to me!"

It was silent, as Kushina poked her head into the hallway to glance at the staircase. Internally, she debated whether she should intervene or not, but she decided that it would've been impossible for her to have ever simply let a fight go on. Either she was always somehow involved in a fight, the one who started a fight, or the one who broke up a fight—as in this scenario.

"Okay Akari, breakfast is ready. I made chocolate chip pancakes and hot chocolate for you, you know." Kushina picked up the little girl like a potato sack, hefting her onto her arm and placing her other hand on Akari's back to keep her steady. Akari glanced down at Kakashi, but her eyes showed no contrition or resentment of any sort. She looked like a mildly confused little girl, curious about her big brother's intentions.

"Have you already eaten, or are you gonna come too, Kashi?" Her voice was quiet, as if she was just beginning to comprehend what she had said. It was spoken with such severity and blatant bitterness that even Akari was shocked. And when that was over, she felt remorse—sure, Kakashi wasn't the greatest brother, but she could see the glimmer in his eyes as they hardened to coal. She wriggled in Kushina's arms, trying to get freed from her limbs so that she could stand on her own two feet. When that was accomplished, she grabbed her big brother's hand and led him to the kitchen.

"Ne, obachan makes really good chocolate chip pancakes. Have you eaten some?" Kakashi shook his head, eyes widening ever the slightest as Akari held his hand. It had been at least a year since she had ever done something so nice with him. Usually there was no contact between either other than the typical chastising or scolding.

"I don't really like sweets, Akari,"

"Oh, right. Why not?" How could she have forgotten? She'd tried to force-feed him some before and he'd pitched a fit and nearly broken her wrist. Of course he apologized, but it didn't really make her feel better.

"I don't know, I just never really have." This was one conversation that Kakashi didn't want to end. It had been more than a year since his sister had shown him affection—more than a year since he'd allowed it. Shinobi didn't have emotions such as love, and his little sister was just a liability if she was going to go out on the field, too. He just really didn't want her to think that he hated her anymore, because it wasn't true. Kakashi loved Akari more than he could stand, which mostly just made him frustrated enough to punch a wall.

"Not even when you were a baby?" Akari pondered softly.

"Not even when I was a baby." Kakashi answered just as gently. That was the end of that conversation, but Kakashi grabbed her and carried her like he had when she was a baby. Almost instinctively, Akari's fingers latched onto his silvery hair to hold herself up.

Kushina watched them get along for once with a look of awe on her face. Akari had never shown any interest in forgiving her brother before, especially not after an argument like that. What had changed in the few days that had passed from her birthday party, when she had been attacking Kakashi when he wasn't there? Nothing had happened between them as far as she had seen.

"Hey Kashi, did they have a ceremony when you were made genin?" Kakashi smiled marginally, nodding hastily.

"Yep, but it was in the same day because they really needed to train people more back then. They still need people, but the war's gone on for a long time so they're not gonna send you little kids out for that yet. You'll get the little missions like finding lost cats or getting supplies." Which brought them back to square one.

"But what if I want a big mission?"

"You're not ready for a big mission."

"Why not?!"

"Do you even know what they make you do in big missions, Akari?" She pouted her lips but didn't say anything, which was an answer in itself. Kakashi at least knew that she was too arrogant to admit she didn't even know what she wanted to sign herself into. "You don't even know what happens, but you want in anyway? Ask Minato-sensei what his missions usually entailed. He'll tell you the same thing I did."

"I _do_ know what you do on big missions!" Akari barked, crossing her arms over her chest. It was a blatant lie, but if she told him the truth, it'd be a blow to her pride. "What's an entailed?"

"It's not a thing, it's what happens. When I said that, I meant for you to ask him what happened in his missions." She let go of his hand to scoot up onto one of the tall chairs before the table that held her food. Ignoring his silent looks, Akari dug into her food ravenously until Minato walked in from his bedroom with his usual garb of a long-sleeved black shirt and his old jonin vest on as well as his blue calf-length sweatpants.

"Ne Minato-jisan, whaddaya do on big missions?" Akari asked, turning around backwards on her knees to grab the back of the chair and watch his reaction to her question.

"Well, there are lots of things you can do."

"Yeah, but what do _you_ do?" She persisted, turning to watch him walk to the other end of the table. "Kashi told me to ask you, and I want to know."

"I usually just give out orders, as the Hokage. Sometimes I go out in battle, but it's not very often anymore since I'm the leader and it's apparently not wise to go out and fight. But when you start out as a genin, you won't be going off to battle. You'll have missions like helping old ladies water gardens and things that are still in the village until a few weeks later. And even then, the most that you'd be doing would be delivering supplies or people to certain places. When you become a chunin, however—well, that's a different story." Akari groaned and turned back to eating her food. If she looked up, she knew she would see Kakashi's know-it-all smirk, which might very well cause her to start a fight with him.

"What happens when you become a chunin?"

"You get to actually leave the village." It was Kakashi who answered this time, adjusting his mask so that it rested comfortably beneath his eyes and his hair so that it was mostly out of his face, save that one tuft that sat between his eyes. It seemed to be more trouble to keep it than to get rid of it to her, but once she reevaluated how her brother had always seemed to want to hide away, she could understand his psychological need for it. It kept people from seeing his entire face and if he wanted to keep himself concealed then so be it. But it didn't make Akari like it any more than she had before, and she frowned to herself.

"Why can't I leave the village as a genin?"

"Because people will try to kill you, and—in case you've forgotten already—you're only four. Having grown men chasing after you in a hunting pursuit isn't something you should be craving at the moment. You're already at a disadvantage because you're small and not really strong physically, but you're also hot-tempered, brash, childish, reckless, thoughtless, and if you didn't have raw talent you'd still be stuck in the Academy."

"Oh yeah, well how old were you when _you_ graduated, Kashi?"

"Five." She opened her mouth smugly to answer, when he cut her off. "But I chased cats and helped carry supplies until I was 6 and passed through the Chunin Exams."

Minato glanced quickly at the two of them, raising an eyebrow at their antics. The tension between them was tangible, almost able to be ripped apart—at least, that's what it looked like Akari wanted to do. She wouldn't glance at Kakashi, but the way she stabbed into her pancakes ruthlessly (and without her typical OCD way of cutting into them into strips horizontally and then vertically), told him everything he needed. They were already having a stretched relationship to begin with, this was only something to pull their ties taut.

"Did I miss something?"

"No." Came the simultaneous answer, and Kushina glanced up from the stove with a catlike grin.

"Well, at least they can agree on some things." She murmured irately, taking Minato his food and glancing at Kakashi with a deadly glower that told him to drop the subject. "However, I'd like it if they didn't decide to argue before noon." Defensive as ever—and still feeling the need to get the last word in—the little girl sitting at the dark wooden table opened her mouth to begin to object.

"_Kakashi_ started it—"

"And you drove it into something more than what it had to be, Akari. By letting you take the exams so early, you can bet that you're not going to have any big missions any time soon. I don't want to hear another word out of either of you on the matter, do you understand me?" The little girl pouted at her seat, refusing to take another bite of her food and leaving her hacked-off chocolate chip pancake bits to grow cold and lonely.

"_But Kakashi's_—"

"Drop it, Akari." Kushina hissed menacingly, and so Akari knew that it was time to stop trying to push the limits of her caretaker's mercy. Angering the fiery-haired soon-to-be mother would be a mistake that she had made enough times to know where to draw the line. She stood up sullenly at having lost the argument, running up the stairs to grab Kitsune-y before walking back downstairs to wait for the time to hurry along.

"I'd like to say a few words to the twenty-seven graduates this year." A face that Akari had seen perhaps once or twice as a fleeting image in the hallway spoke softly, a mild-mannered approach to an exciting event that had her shaking in anticipation. There were seven chairs in total to her right and left filled with other former Academy students who had passed the exams last Friday—three days ago. A lifetime ago.

She didn't know who was sitting beside her, as they were sitting in alphabetical order, but she was the third person to the left at the front row. Most of the people graduating had apparently had family names from the latter end of the alphabet: Senju, Umino, Tanaka, etc. There was a girl from her class sitting beside her with the last name of Chimori, and beside her at the very end was someone who had to have been from Chou-sensei's class because Akari had never seen him before. It wouldn't take much to remember the small wrinkles between his eyes and his nose, or his dark black eyes, or how he seemed so immovable with his arms lax by his side yet still properly folded into his lap. She wrinkled his nose at him, writing him off as an upstart and turning her attention elsewhere.

To her right was a boy who fidgeted like a puppy being forced into immobility with a simple command of "Stay" that he couldn't keep if he tried. His eyes turned from the pile of hitai-ate before them, to Chou-sensei who had stopped speaking to look at the students and wait for the spectators to silence themselves, to the grass at his feet, to the other graduates. She vaguely remembered him, but couldn't quite place a name to him. The others down further to the right were all holding similar expressions of anxiousness, and so Akari didn't spare them another glance except to look behind them to Mamoru near the end of the third row. He shot her a smile, and she feebly grinned back before turning back to the front.

The clearing they sat in was filled for the moment with plenty of foldable metal chairs—four rows of eight chairs each, save for the last row, which had only three. There were plenty of other chairs for the spectators watching the entire ceremony—parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, guardians, grandparents, friends, and people looking to see who would be the best out of the group to cast lots for future competitions such as the Chunin Exams. There were too many watchers for Akari to get an accurate number with everyone moving and shuffling all the time in their chairs, and her overactive mind couldn't focus on such a meaningless task for long either way. She kicked at the grass beneath her chair and accidentally nudged Kitsune-y, wishing desperately that this whole thing would hurry up.

From the front of the clearing, Chou-sensei began to speak in her meek voice once more. "I do apologize that Kaoru-sensei is not here today to assist me in this duty of handing out the hitai-ate to these children, but someone had to take care of the other students who are still studying inside. However, even if I did not have the pleasure to teach you, I can say with all the certainty that I can muster that I am proud of you. You twenty-seven sitting in front of me have done a great deal of work to get to the point you are at now, and I have been honored to be able to teach you here. Some of you will go to great places in your time, and I can see that many of you will be wonderful successors. After all, where will the world go if not to the children of today? It has been such a blessing to watch over you and see you grow, and this achievement is one of the many I am sure you will accomplish…"

This was where Akari began to tune her out. A solitary bird had settled in one of the lifeless trees nearby; a moving blob of brown on an equally morose brown over the brown grass and brown swing that had been there since Akari had begun school to distract her from the teacher with pristine looks and words at the front of the crowd. Half of what she said went in one ear and out the other, especially with words such as "successors," and "achievement," and "accomplish," which meant as much as the bird's tune did to Akari. They were honeyed words spoken with a mawkish voice, and Akari could hardly stand the wait when all Chou-sensei seemed to do was prolong it. This wasn't Kaoru-sensei's sort of discriminating torture, but it was torture in itself to keep the children from what they wanted most: to get this done with so that they would start a new chapter in their lives.

"So without further ado, I would like to get the ceremony formally started." Akari thanked whoever had heard her silent pleas to make this hurry along. "To begin, I'd like to have the highest-scoring participant get his hitai-ate first. Uchiha Itachi," the boy at the end stood up, walking to the front of the crowd as if he were floating on air. A curt smile played across his lips as a baby cried out a single note from the audience. A few of the girls in the students' section giggled at it while Akari rolled her eyes. It was a disruption from the ceremony, and Chou-sensei waited a moment before continuing.

"Itachi-san has been a joy to have in my classroom. He was always so helpful when we held outdoor lessons, and I don't believe it's a surprise to anyone who knows him that he's the top-scoring graduate. Itachi-san passed each and every test with perfect skills and execution, which is expected from the Uchiha prodigy, as we called him in my class. He actually came to me after school one day and asked me if I would allow him to have his own lessons outside, while still taking the same exams as the class. He is an exemplary student with self-discipline, maturity, and a good bit of wisdom that I am not used to seeing in the children that I teach. I hereby award Uchiha Itachi his hitai-ate." This was apparently the cue to clap, as Akari heard everyone around her begin applauding. Of course she joined in, but she didn't really mean it. Not when he had just been praised as being better than everyone else there, including herself.

"Now we're going to do this in alphabetical order, starting with a Chimori Kasumi." The girl beside Akari jumped up at that, and her legs shook as she walked up to Chou-sensei. "Since I did not have the pleasure of having Kasumi-san in my classroom, Kaoru-sensei has written notes for me to say about his children. Here's what he wrote for Kasumi-san: 'Kasumi is a relatively hard-working girl who may have trouble understanding the directions I give her or how to perform them. Nevertheless, she apparently was able to do something right if she has passed the exams. She demonstrates a shy personality in the classroom and executes directions after only a little hesitation. Kasumi is never late, and she has never missed a day to the Academy, which shows her diligence, as well.' For these things, I hereby award Chimori Kasumi her hitai-ate." Akari clapped out of obligation once again, staring up as the girl placed the headband beneath her bangs with shaky hands.

"The next graduate is Hatake Akari." She stepped up, trying to mimic a calm demeanor as she strode up to the mountain of hitai-ate at the front. "Again, I did not have the pleasure to teach Akari-san, so here's what Kaoru-sensei has said about her: 'Akari is an extremely strong-willed girl. So stubborn, in fact, that no matter how many times I tried to tell her that she was doing something wrong, she would do it as I told her for a while before reverting back to her old ways when she thought I wasn't looking. She's keen to taking risks and being hot-tempered, both with her lessons and her stylistic decisions. She maintains a bad attitude to cover up the fact that she does, in fact, enjoy helping others, as she did with her peers. She became a leader of sorts to a certain few students with her take-charge attitude, and her confidence in herself will take her places.' For these things, I hereby award Hatake Akari her hitai-ate." As soon as the hitai-ate was handed to her, she grabbed it and strode back to her seat without putting it on. She shot glances to the crowds at the side to scan for anyone she knew. Bright red hair caught her eyes almost immediately, and beside her sat Minato. Further down were Rin, Obito, and Kakashi. Beside Kakashi sat a woman with charcoal black hair and a bump for her stomach, but Akari's gaze didn't linger since Kushina-bachan would claim it was impolite to stare at people she didn't know.

_Taking risks…hot-tempered…strong-willed…stubborn…bad attitude…take-charge attitude…enjoy helping others…confidence…_she wondered what he could've meant by that as the next few people were called up to the front. Her thoughts were paused for a breath of time to watch Mamoru's stumbling waltz to the front and the speech that Kaoru-sensei had prepared for him (something about being quiet but strong and being able to ease conflicts, as well as master his skills quickly). The next pause was when Iruka was called up, and he was hailed as the one of the only two who had passed from the group that hadn't been in an advanced class beforehand (which was a very honorable thing, Chou-sensei assured, as they hadn't been given the same lessons as the others, but had still managed to graduate with the same skills).

"Again, I thank you for allowing these precious children time with us to learn and grow. If it weren't for the parents out there who gave your children to us to watch over, we wouldn't have known them like we do now and I wouldn't be able to say for sure that our future is secured in good hands. Thank you, and please remember that your children need to return to room G-100 in three hours to see their new teams and jonin teachers. Have a nice evening!"

The once-placid crowd immediately began to move like a raging river. Everyone stood up and began to make their way towards their respective family and friends, but Akari stood still long enough to grab Kitsune-y and hold onto her hitai-ate. The crowd swarmed around her, leaving her disoriented until a hand on her shoulder guided and pulled her along towards a certain opening near the tree with the swing that she had been staring at earlier. When she looked up, Mamoru was grinning down at her. He opened his mouth and started talking, but Akari couldn't hear him over the chatter caused by the crowd.

"_What_?" She had to scream for him to understand what she was saying.

"_Isn't this so exciting_?" He exclaimed, glancing over her head to motion for Iruka to come over. He had to wade through the two families that were gathering near the tree to get to their meeting spot. "_Do you think we'll all be in the same squad?_"

"_I hope so, I only know one other person here_!" Iruka shouted back before tying his hitai-ate at his forehead. Mamoru's was already tightened, and it pulled his bangs over the cloth and shiny metal insignia of the village's leaf symbol. It would mark her as a target outside of the village. People would kill her if they saw it on her. But somehow, she wasn't upset by that.

"_Akari!_" A voice called out from the crowd, she was sure of it. When Obito was freed from the mass of people, she couldn't contain her bliss at seeing him. Instead of that boring mess, she ran to him and held her arms up for him to hold her. He laughed and placed her on his shoulders, giving her a slightly better chance to see at the same height of the crowd.

"_Oba-chan, oji-san, Ri-in, Ka-shi, we're over he-re!_" She shouted, cupping her mouth with her hands to howl over the turmoil. Minato saw her first and led everyone over to the swing-tree. Rin was the first to walk over and congratulate Akari animatedly, which was just in her nature to be overtly kind.

"Where's your hitai-ate, Akari?" Obito wondered as the crowd gradually diffused over the area as kids found their families and friends. Akari caught a glimpse of Iruka and Mamoru hugging a woman whom she could only guess was one of their mothers. The hand that held her new forehead protector flew in front of Obito's face to show him the headband. When he took it from her, she reached for the goggles that sat on top of his head and placed them over her eyes. He laughed at her good-naturedly, setting her on the ground to get his goggles back; it was a game that they played often—Akari would grab them and when he'd ask for them back, she'd refuse for a while until giving in and returning them because she didn't want his eyes to start hurting him.

Rin hugged her as soon as her exchange of hitai-ate for goggles was completed. Seeing how Akari wasn't expecting it, she squealed and fidgeted when Rin cradled her against her chest while she kneeled to her level.

"I'm so happy for you, Akari! I remember the day when we had the ceremony and became genin and everything! I wonder if I'll know your jonin teacher, do you think you could still come to see me when you're so busy on your missions?" Inwardly, Akari pointed out the flaws in what she had said. First of all, how would Rin know any jonin when she was still just a little chunin? And next, there was the huge problem with still going to see her, especially when Akari didn't go to visit Rin now. However, she kept her mouth shut for once and only smiled at the older shinobi.

"So how does it feel being a genin now, Akari? Are you excited about finding out who's on your team?" She nodded to answer Minato, handing him her hitai-ate and turning around. He had to kneel to put it on her, but the finished product of her uncontrollable grinning and eager bouncing around. Even Kakashi had to crack a smile at her elation—not that anyone could really see it, anyway.

"You know, why don't we go out somewhere for lunch? I think I heard that the new café down on Market Street was nice, and it'll be a change of pace for all of us." Akari jumped at the opportunity to answer, both figuratively and literally in her state of euphoria. A laugh came from behind her, along with a joking punch to her shoulder.

"I don't think I've ever seen you this happy, Akari-chan. Where'd those insults of yours go?" Iruka teased her, and she tilted her head back with the intent to retort, but found herself unable to do as much as frown at him. "Is this your family?"

"Mhmm," She turned her gunmetal blue eyes up to Minato, reaching up to grab his hand for comfort. "This is my ojisan, but he's not really he just likes me to call him that. And my obachan's here, but she's not really my aunt so there's that."

"It's nice to meet you, are you the friend that Akari's been talking about? You know, she goes on and on about her friends from school, just gushing about how she's so glad to make new friends!" Kushina interjected, lying straight through her teeth, a smile on her face as she watched Akari's disbelieving face. Obito laughed at her, along with Rin.

"No, I think she said something about two idiots, Kushina-san. Or was it morons? Either way, I think you're reading too deeply into the context about this. And even when she does talk about them, it's to complain about them, so I wouldn't exactly call it gushing about her so-called friends." The silver-haired boy responded, moving closer to Akari in a subconscious attempt to give her protection. Either way, she felt satisfied when he ran a hand through her hair and stood up for the sake of her pride, just the way things used to be when she would get into mischief around their home or the market streets and he would call it an accident for her sake. "I'm Hatake Kakashi, by the way, her big brother. I guess it's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too, Hatake-san, Hokage-sama, and Hokage-sama's wife. I was really coming over here to tell you that we're leaving now, Akari-chan, so see you later for team-assigning." Iruka nodded to everyone else, and as they watched him walk away, they also spotted Mamoru flailing about and waving like an idiot, apparently expecting a response from the girl. She sighed exasperatedly, rolled her eyes irately, but still modestly smiled as she waved back.

"Akari, you didn't tell me you had a _boyfriend_!" Obito taunted, poking her stomach as she cringed and shifted Kitsune-y in the hand that she wasn't using to hold Minato's. Her excitement had bubbled down as the crowd had dispersed to other areas, and now she was annoyed.

"That's not my boyfriend, stupid. I don't even have one and I don't want one, neither." Kushina chuckled at Akari's insistence. Kakashi actually half-grinned at her and sat a hand on her shoulder, which was surprising in itself without his adding an extra word at the end: "Good."

"Should we be going now, Minato?" Kushina asked, her grey eyes darting from the kids surrounding them to the families who were already leaving. It was sometime around 1:00, so people would most definitely be going off to lunch if they hadn't already. If they could hurry, there may be seats available at the café for each of them without much of a wait. "I don't want to wait for food."

"Alright then let's go." He turned to the kids, who had started a conversation and miniature game of tag amongst themselves. "My team, we're going to leave now so please keep up and don't fall behind because there will be a lot of people leaving and a big crowd for lunch."

Obito turned to Akari, holding out his hand for her to hold. It was another time-honored ritual that they shared with one another, which Akari usually took him up on. However, today his proffered hand was rejected as she hugged Kitsune-y against her chest and shook her head. Today would be the day that she grew independent as a genin who would go on her own missions from now on and have her own team. As her uncle had told her yesterday, she needed to be able to take care of herself on missions.

"I'm find walking by myself, Bito-kun." Her statement caused him to raise an eyebrow, but he shrugged and told her that if she wanted to, he wouldn't mind if she held his hand. Rin smiled at the two of them, standing to the side with a sulking and half-jealous Kakashi.

"You're sister's adorable, Kakashi-kun." He shrugged. "No really, she is. I don't know how she managed to come out as such a cute little fluffy ball of happiness. It's endearing, especially when she's with Obito." Again, her one-sided banter had earned her an uncommitted shrug. "You have to admit, he's a good influence on her. She practically lights up when he's around, don't you think?" Rin was sighing as she looked at the little girl, but turned around quickly to spot her sensei and Kushina-san motioning for them to follow with frantic waving. "Oh, it looks like we're leaving now. Aren't you coming too, Kakashi-kun?"

"I think I'll just go now. I'm not hungry right now, anyway so I'll just go home."

"Are you not feeling well?" Rin murmured worriedly, placing the back of her hand beneath his hitai-ate to feel his forehead. Kakashi didn't even blink. "You don't have a fever. Are you getting enough sleep at night?"

"I'm fine Rin. Really," he stated gruffly. He looked around shiftily before his gaze settled on his little sister. Her nose was red, and her cheeks were flamed. Her fingers looked icy and she sometimes shook when a cold wind snapped her hair around her cheeks. His gloved hands reached around his neck and grabbed the scratchy woolen fabric before setting it around Akari's throat and wrapping it tightly. Her fingers gripped at the scarf, and she smiled up at him with enough warmth to melt the frosty air around them.

Kakashi merely turned to walk out of the main exit, and promptly walked back to the Namikaze household to get away from the crowds of people who escaped from the ceremony in heaps of humans. He had managed to flee from that place where his gut wrenched and not even a series of thoughts such as _I don't care about her,_ and _I don't care if she likes him better than her own brother,_ could calm him down. Situations like that had caused him to despise Obito, picking at any opportunity he could find to dismiss the other boy as something less than he was. Even so, Akari had never smiled like that—with such a face that actually seemed to brighten up—when he was remotely close. Quite the opposite in fact; she generally tensed up and that irritated him to no extent because they were _family_, and Obito was just _some kid off the street who just happened to be in the right place at the right time._

Nevertheless, to be a good shinobi he had to deprive himself of such feelings, and made it a point to avoid them in his work. Not only was it a good backup plan to hoard money while he still had the chance, but it kept him from feeling emotions and therefore kept him sane.

The crowd swelled around her, a living and breathing mass of sweat and meat that smelled rank. The stench of persons drowned out the soothing scent of winter and cozy houses and smoky fires, and Akari was lost in trying to reconnect with that particular aroma to ease her nose. People really did have awful body odors. Not even the savory aroma of freshly prepared food could mask the stench of the crowd.

So instead of focusing on Obito in front of her, she lifted her nose and tried to find a smell that didn't make her nose wrinkle in disgust. This was her first mistake, along with others such as walking in a different direction and maybe chasing a moth that she thought was a butterfly. Either way, this really could've all just been avoided if she hadn't tried to be so arrogantly independent. Alas, if there was one thing that Akari had in galore, it was arrogance in herself.

She didn't even notice that she wasn't on the bustling market street with a relatively smooth dirt path until there was a gate standing in front of her. Well, perhaps not a gate as it was a doorway to what looked like an invisible house. There was an outline, a doorframe, but the door looked to be missing. A fan was painted at the top in two colors: red and white. It was an insignia she swore she could've seen before, but couldn't remember where.

Curious as she was, Akari followed the path she was on. A certain scent caught her nose, and she followed it like a moth to a flame. It caused her stomach to grumble in agony as she recognized it as the smell of senbei, crisp and airy food that made her realize how starved she felt to be going after something savory. Usually she would've at least looked for someplace that sold something sugary and sweet.

A quaint building stood over her, and she looked at the bakery goods that were set out for eye candy to attract customers. She opened the door to the shop before any hesitation could stop her.

A bell over the door signaled her entry.

"Hello dearie, how can I help you?" Akari walked in, ogling the food that was displayed. A pile of cookies sitting underneath a display case caught her unwavering attention. She swallowed.

"Those cookies look really tasty. Can I have one?" The old woman who stood behind the case warmly smiled, and Akari wondered if this was what a grandmother would look like. Her face was wrinkled like an old book, and it looked like there was dust in her hair to make it so grey.

"Let's see if you've got enough money for one." Akari's eyes widened with the sudden awareness that she had not brought any money with her in the first place, as she hadn't thought she'd be paying for anything. And anyway, she didn't know if she even had any money to spend on herself, as the only times she'd ever held money was when she had to buy ingredients for Kakashi or Kushina in the market.

She was immediately crestfallen, and her gaze turned to her feet in their uncomfortable black sandals that stood out against the light brown floors like a sore thumb.

"I don't have any money."

The grandma chuckled brightly, which confused Akari as she had just said that she couldn't pay for anything. Why was she so happy?

"Oh, that's quite alright, dearie. People don't buy those cookies much anyway, and so I'll usually have to throw them out. I don't mind if you can't pay—in fact, help yourself."

"R-really?!" Her eyes lit up like miniature bonfires as she was handed a cookie. They were shortbread, which wasn't usually her favorite. Here, however, it crumbled in her mouth and was coated in sugar, and she wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth when it came to food being handed to her. She nibbled at the edges of the cookie, content with what she had been handed.

The bell over the door rang three clear chimes. Another person had entered. Akari bit into her cookie, unaffected by the new customer in the store.

"Oh hello Itachi, it's wonderful to see you today. How did the graduation ceremony go today?" She choked on the bite of cookie in her mouth, finally looking up to see the boy who had entered.

Sure enough, he was the same Uchiha boy who had sat at the end of the front row. As she had predicted, it didn't take much to remember those small wrinkles between his eyes and his nose on each side, or his dark black eyes, or how he seemed so immovable with his arms lax by his side. But now he seemed to be at peace, and turned to her while she coughed down the cookie.

"Do you need some help?" He asked, and these were the first words she heard him speak. She wasn't expecting him to sound so grown up or caring, and she certainly hadn't expected it when he walked to her with the grandma and grabbed her shoulder gently. Akari forced the piece of cookie down, and it scratched her throat as she took deep breaths after her fit.

"My, if I had known that such a thing would've happened, I wouldn't have given you the cookie in the first place! Gracious, dearie." Itachi's hand retreated from her shoulder, and she looked up at him. She saw him clearly now, how his hair framed his face with the newly donned hitai-ate, and the little ponytail of hair in the back that was somehow similar to but different than Iruka's because Itachi's looked soft instead of coarse and dry. His skin was lighter and smoother than Iruka's, as well, and he couldn't have been much older than her, where Iruka and Mamoru were at least five years her seniors (in age only, she reminded herself).

"You're that boy that Chou-sensei kept going on and on about during the ceremony just now. The Uchiha who scored the highest on the tests, ne?" He frowned slightly, his eyebrows crinkling together across the papery face of his. A sort of dim recognition flitted through his eyes.

"And you're the girl who got in trouble and had to take the exams on Saturday, Hatake Akari. Forgive me for not noticing you, but I wasn't expecting you to be here." The grandma's face of muddled understanding suddenly cleared up as soon as her name was recited.

"Oh, so you're the one that Obito talks about. Hatake Kakashi's sister, no? And the daughter of the legendary White Fang of Konoha." Her grip on the round cookie in her hand tightened involuntarily.

"You have my condolences about him, dearie." A crack in the treat began to form.

"He was such a good man. Obito reminds me of him. A kind boy, too, liked sweets just like you!"

The top of the cookie crumbled to the floor with a dull thud, and Akari's hands were clenched as she looked down to find it. She reached over to pick it up, and the grandma held her hands out to take it to the trash. "It's a shame how he went, such a pity that he took his own life like that. Kami rest his soul,"

"Uruchi-basan, I don't think that Hatake-chan is comfortable with you talking about this subject," Akari was surprised to find that Itachi had so carefully worded her current troubles. If it had continued any longer, she was sure that she would lose her temper with the grandma. "My apologies, but could you blame her? She's only a little girl."

Okay, scratch that thought. Now she was angrier at Itachi more than she was with the grandma.

"I'm not a little girl! I'm a genin too, you know, so we're practically equals. Don't write me off as some insignificant little girl because I'll make you regret it. And don't talk about me like I'm not in the room either, idiot." Tension flooded the room, mostly—if not, entirely—from Akari. She was a bowstring pulled taut, and all she needed was for something to set her off.

What she got, instead, caused her to relax, and rendered her useless as a weapon. Akari watched with bated breath, her gunmetal blue eyes following Itachi's movements as he kneeled on the ground and ducked his head.

"My apologies, Hatake-chan. I did not mean to upset you, I only meant that you shouldn't have had to deal with something like that, not that you were somehow inferior to me. Forgive me for causing you distress, it was not my intention."

Her cheeks became speckled with scarlet, and she glanced at the grandma as if to ask if this was even allowed from people anymore. Surely, no one showed that sort of respect for a four year old, so was Itachi just humoring her or was he seriously sick in his head? The grandma turned to the display case, and started wiping a smudge off of one corner. She was unconcerned by the seemingly odd spectacle going on in her shop.

"Ne, get up idiot. You didn't have to do all that to apologize, I got the message." Itachi smiled as he stood up, and it was oddly warm. It was unexpected after what she had just said and the temper tantrum that almost happened.

"Have you eaten lunch yet?" He asked, watching her eyes slit before she reluctantly shook her head no. "Then pick anything from here, and I'll buy it for you. As my way to apologize for my slip of the tongue. Go ahead,"

"I already told you I got your apology, so there's no reason for you to buy me anything." She fumed, growing tired and irritated by his insistence. Perhaps he was more like Iruka than she had thought. Even though she tried to convince him that she was fine without his help, he ordered three cookies. She stared at him bug-eyed as he gave her all three of the large, round cookies with sugar coating them. Secretly, she was thankful. Outwardly, she only grabbed the cookies and started munching on them. Itachi smiled quaintly at her, with just the corners of his mouth upturned and his eyes joyous.

"Itachi, you and your little friend might want to head back over for the team-assigning ceremony. It's a long walk there, and I don't want you to be late." And then to Akari, "You can come back any time you'd like, dearie, just be sure to bring Obito along as well. It's not very proper for an outsider to be here, and I miss seeing him around here."

"Okay, have a nice day, lady!" Akari responded as Itachi took the lead and she followed him back into the heart of the village. "What's she mean by that, Uchiha-kun? That it's not proper for an outsider to be here,"

"This is where most of the Uchiha clan members live, so naturally only the Uchiha clan members would come here, Hatake-chan. Forgive me for asking, but how did you end up here in the first place? It's a long way from the center of the village," She shrugged in response, looking at the many faces that smiled at her and Itachi from the sidewalks—or maybe they were only smiling at Itachi and she was just getting attention as a result.

"Oh, I got lost."

"I could've figured that out on my own. How did you get lost?"

"Well, the people in the village stink really badly so I started to get away from them 'cause they stink, and then I found this moth on the ground and I thought it was a butterfly, so I chased it to the gate and then smelled food and so I followed it to that store and that lady let me have a cookie. I like her." Itachi raised an eyebrow.

"So you're saying that you followed your nose to get all the way out here?"

"And a moth."

"So you let your nose and a moth distract you." He smiled down at her, dark eyes crinkling at the bottom as he did so. "You're a really interesting person. How old are you, by the way?"

"I turned four on 22nd of last month. Whaddabout you?"

"I turned 7 last June." Akari nodded, looking up at the gate as they passed through it. The red and white fan was still there, and she knew now where she had seen the symbol before. Obito had worn it on the back of his shirt, as the telltale sign of him being an Uchiha.

"So why'd Chou-sensei just keep droning on and on about stupid stuff during the ceremony today? It took forever to get through, and I was hungry." Itachi shrugged.

"I think it was nice for everyone to hear such compliments from their teacher."

"Yeah, but Kaoru-sensei hid insults in his comments to the girls. He doesn't like girls very much, and he especially didn't like me."

"That's because Kaoru-sensei thinks like an old man and doesn't believe that women belong fighting. He's an old man, and so therefore he treats people like they were treated years ago when women and girls had to stay home and make sure that kids were taken care of and houses were cleaned." Akari wrinkled her nose at that, scrunching up her face into a grimace.

"I wouldn't want to take care of a kid or clean houses, that's boring." They were wordless for the rest of the walk, a little uncomfortable in each other's presence as the ensuing silence devoured them.

"Students, settle down!" It was after hours at the school, which meant that both Chou-sensei and Kaoru-sensei were there to watch over the graduates. Akari and Itachi had arrived a few minutes before the entire room was filled with kids in a variety of ages from 4-12. The two picked separated seats in the class. Itachi walked to the back, the least crowded area, while Akari chose an aisle seat beside Mamoru, and further down, Iruka. Chou-sensei was calling the graduates to order, while Kaoru-sensei held a sheet of paper in his hands. Akari wondered what it was. "Please get quiet so that we can tell you what teams you will be in. May I have your undivided attention?"

The room simultaneously sat down, and every student looked instantly professional. It was oddly calming to Akari, who leaned forward in the bench in anticipation. That was it.

"For Team 1…" Kaoru-sensei read from the paper, taking his time to get to the point. "We have Chimori Kasumi, Hayate Junichi, and Umino Iruka. Your jonin leader, Katsuo Gina, is waiting for you outside and has requested that you leave immediately. Take everything you have with you, this will be the last time you visit here as students. I wish you each the best."

The three named people stood up, and Akari slid back on the bench to make room for Iruka to leave. He grinned down to her and Mamoru, whispering "Wish me luck, you guys," beneath his breath. Kaoru-sensei continued down the list once they had left, and Akari could feel her heart palpitations in her skull, almost drowning out the names as they were called. She had a hard time keeping her breath quiet as she realized that she would most likely be stuck in a team with three other people that she hardly knew. Almost subconsciously, she scooted closer to Mamoru.

"Team 2 will be composed of the following members," Akari held her breath in anxiousness, leaning forward and feeling Mamoru beside her stiffen up. Her fingers scrabbled at the hand-me-down scarf that Kakashi had given her earlier, unraveling swatches of green wool at the edges. "Manabu Shigeru, Shinichi Rokuro, and Tanaka Ayane. Your team leader will be here shortly to pick you up.

"Team 3 consists of," and again, her heart was pounding and she could hardly breathe. Her fingers wound themselves around in the cloth, bunching up the gloves already placed on her hands. "Masahiko Sadao, Morita Natsuki, and Takagi Hajime. Your jonin leader, Shigeru Atsushi is also waiting for you outside and requests that you leave immediately. I wish you each the best.

"Team 4 consists of," once more, she was rendered breathless and shaky as Kaoru-sensei took a deep breath and opened his mouth to continue. He stopped and furrowed his brow, his ever-present scowl growing deeper as he opened and shut his mouth like a gaping fish, growing more puzzled each time he took another glance at the team. Akari wondered curiously and slightly irately what could hold him up. "This can't be right, I thought Hokage-sama said that…Chou-san, come look at this and tell me I'm not imagining things."

The rounded woman glanced over his shoulder, muttering the names before her eyebrows crinkled together as well. "Now that can't be right, I thought he said that he was changing—"

"Yes, yes I did too," Kaoru-sensei interrupted heatedly, frowning at the undisclosed names. "He was supposed to spread the variety of students, not clump some of them together. Should we change it?"

"Well, it is Hokage-sama's orders, and he tends to know what he's doing. Let's have a little faith in him this time, Kaoru-san." Chou-sensei smiled genuinely, but Akari could see Kaoru-sensei mutter something under his breath, probably about how women were so fickle or something. Whatever that meant.

"Fine. Team 4 is to be composed of Hatake Akari, Senju Mamoru, and Uchiha Itachi." Akari only blinked at that. So she was on a team with Mamoru and Itachi, both of whom she knew a little bit about and could at least mildly stand. From beside her, Mamoru gripped her hand and squeezed. "Your jonin leader will be here to pick you up soon."

The other three teams were named, and the eighteen students still in the room (as another team had left to find their jonin, and the two Academy teachers promptly left) buzzed with excitement. The six teams eventually gravitated towards each other, and Akari and Mamoru were scooting towards the wall to provide some space for Itachi to sit with them. Mamoru grinned like a fool at the two of them.

"This is like starting at the Academy all over again, don't you think? All the excitement about everything, and new things to learn. And at least we're on the same team, even if Iruka was somewhere else."

"What do you think they were talking about?" Akari murmured, earning Itachi's attention.

"They were probably confused because we're in the top 10 of our class, which means that we should've been spread out amongst other teams that are, forgive me, lacking in skills." She turned to her left, a childish pout evident on her face.

"Okay, first of all stop asking for an apology whenever you talk. It's annoying. Second of all, how do you know that?"

"It's only a guess, really. We can ask our leader when he or she gets here."

And that ended that conversation. Akari thumbed the scarf, tracing the navy blue diamonds in the center of the woolen design. Soon, they'd be taken away to who knows where with a jonin who would teach them how to be shinobi. She wondered what they would do, as a new team. What would their leader look like, anyway? Would it be a girl, or a boy? Probably a boy, since girls were admittedly scarce on the field. There was probably a ratio of one girl to every four boys fighting, typically because girls still tended to stick around in the village for one reason or another.

Akari's hands were the one part of her that didn't shake as she waited—they never really did, for some odd reason. Even though she felt the muscles in her legs quiver as her name was called, her hands were perfectly calm save for her picking at the scarf and a little tightening. Her hands always seemed so sure of themselves, and it soothed her knowing that she could follow them and their plan. Those hands of hers would make her the best shinobi in the Land of Fire—no, in the world someday. All she had to do was use them.

It took an hour for two more groups to find their jonin leaders who came in at the front of the room. Twelve kids still sat in the room, and so they waited for any other jonin to come in. Akari was no longer so pent up, and she fiddled with the smooth fabric of her gloves.

"These jonin are taking a really long time." A girl from what Akari thought was Team 9 whined, leaning on her hands as she yawned. "They should've been ready to come get us when they heard we were graduating today. How slack can these people be?"

"And they're supposed to teach us things like self-discipline and responsibility? No thanks,"

"Maybe they just got held up, it's no big deal. I mean, we're supposed to spend time with our teams today, right? Well, we're doing that, even if we don't have our sensei, so it's all good."

"But they should've been here by now, I wanna learn cool new jutsu!"

"Stop your complaining!" Akari snapped at them, eyes slitting as she leaned back into the cradle of her arms. "It's not getting anything done and it's annoying. If you can't talk about something better, then just shut up for once before I make you. Honestly, I whine less than you guys and I'm four." A few of the remaining graduates snickered at her, while others only glared.

"So now the little misfit thinks that she can boss us around? Tell us, what makes you so sure that you can make us do anything? We're older than you, and a lot bigger. Maybe you should sit back down and jump off your pedestal, little girl." Her eyes glared daggers at the boy who had insulted her, and so she jumped over the table in front of her to walk to his seat on the aisle.

"You wanna go, boy? I'm not scared of fighting you right here and now, and I'm definitely not scared of fighting you right here and now." Akari's eyes challenged him, tension spreading through her nerves as she rolled up her sleeves and pulled the ends of her gloves into the white bandages over her wrists. She blew her bangs out of her eyes and tucked her hair behind her ears.

The boy gave a sort of laugh that sounded half-forced, and he looked at his new teammates before returning Akari's stare.

"You're on, but not here. Let's go outside so that it doesn't get the room messy." Akari's glare turned into a sort of triumphant smirk.

"Fine then." She turned to address a frowning Itachi and worried Mamoru. "You guys want to watch?"

"Akari, we're supposed to wait in here for our sensei. You can't just go running off like that, stupid! Don't you know how much trouble we could get in—especially if you started fighting with someone? You could get hurt before we even get to go on our first mission, and it's not even worth it, the kid's just a punk!" Akari shot him a sort of lackadaisical yet arrogant glance, a catlike grin stretching over her parted lips.

"Come on, Mamo, if you think like that we'll never do anything fun. It won't take long, anyway, I promise." She grabbed Kitsune-y while Itachi sent her a look.

"You shouldn't just start fights like that. We're part of the same village, can't you make peace with him?" She sniggered at him, raising an eyebrow.

"Sorry Uchiha-kun, but I'm not one to duck my head and apologize. Like I said, this won't take long." And she was racing out the door, down to the strip of what could pass as a yard behind the looming building. Her hands were clenched into fists as she formed a strategy.

There weren't many trees around except for the ones in the forest a few meters away, which she could use if she needed cover. The guy that she would be against looked to be about 145 cm tall and weigh maybe 30-35 kilograms, perhaps the average graduate age of 10. Compared to her relatively scrawny 110 cm height and 12 kilograms, a physical attack wouldn't get her anywhere—especially since she frankly sucked at taijutsu. She could always try out her fire jutsu on a moving target, and her genjutsu wasn't so bad either. If she could just keep a fair distance between them, it would be easy to win.

"Ready to lose, girl?"

"Ready when you are."

"Okay, rules are simple: trees are off-limits and you lose when you're knocked off your feet and pinned. Fair enough?"

"Deal. You're starting." She took her stance, setting Kitsune-y and her billowy scarf down at her feet. The boy glanced at her snidely, scoffing at her as if he didn't take her seriously. Which, of course, he didn't, seeing as how that was the whole reason for this.

"No, you can start off. You're going to need it to get anything on me." He was so proud, so conceited—it was like a buffet for Akari's ego. If and when she took him down, she would enjoy the look on his face for quite some time. Her fingers grabbed the edges of her goggles, pulling them down over her eyes.

"You're sure? I wouldn't mind letting you have a try before I kick your ass, and I'd like to keep this fight fair, ne." He shrugged, a clear message of '_I tried to help you_' flashing across his face. Akari smirked, eyes glinting as she felt the adrenaline cut her off from the world. Her heartbeat was pounding in her ear, but she didn't fear it this time. This was what she had wanted as a shinobi, right? It was all her training from such an early age put to work, and a test to show her skills.

The boy sprinted forward, chakra forming in his hands, showing that he planned to use taijutsu. She internally groaned at the prospect of having to fight against a taijutsu user, but she dodged anyway, watching him almost trip over his own feet. Her groan turned into a bright grin. _A clumsy taijutsuist…I can work with that._

Akari quickly jumped out of the way, shifted over, and dodged as much as she could. So far, the only damage she had taken was a punch to her stomach and a brush against her jaw. Her fingers quickly formed handsigns as she moved her legs and head, keeping on her feet while she kept her eyes on her enemy.

_Snake, dragon, rabbit, tiger; Fire release: Dragon Style technique!_

It was certainly risky using such a technique at such close quarters—if her assailant hadn't hopped back and fallen, she could've been hit by the jutsu as well. Or at least, she would've felt the effects in her hair and eyebrows and singed skin. Fortunately, the jutsu kept its straight course and hit the dirt, where it slowly died out. The boy kicked out for her feet as he sat up on his hands, and Akari jumped swift enough to kick his legs up, which efficiently knocked him off balance. His arms crumpled, and he fell onto the back of his head and neck. Akari folded her handsigns again, forming the rat and then snake sign before watching the boy's eyes widen in fear.

His scream was orotund and rang across the field. A few former students from inside ran out, shocked by the sight of the writhing boy on the ground, holding his hands to his ears and voice wobbly. He sobbed on the dirt, curling into a ball before Akari leaned on him with a hand, smirking victoriously.

"I win." She stated as a matter-of-factly, sneering at his quivering arms and jerky legs. He couldn't even stand up, he was so scared. Perfect.

"H-how did you know that I was so scared of that?" He tremulously asked, eyes still wide enough for Akari to see the irises of bleak color. "I've never told anyone about that, no one. So how could you know about it? How did you _know_?!"

"Easy there boy, I don't know what the hell you're talking about."

"_Th-that_! You know exactly what I mean, you little bitch!" He cried out, penetrating her skull. His eyes were crazed, voice taut as his muscles, and he stood up warily. Akari took a few steps to back away, but he followed after her, grapping the collar of her shirt. "How did you know about that?"

"If you don't let me go right now, I swear that this will be the last thing you ever see. I'm not playing with you anymore because I already won, so let me go an' you won't get hurt any worse than you already have, ne." Akari was hostile, eyes slit and glaring holes into his head as she glowered at him. She had won the fight fair and square, so why was he being a sore loser about it?

He threw a punch at her face, hitting her square in her jaw so hard that she heard a pop and instantly felt a burning jolt of pain that didn't go away. It seared beyond her skin and burned into her. _It hurts, it hurts so much…I don't like this pain, it hurts…_

The boy punched her again, drawing blood this time as he attacked the same cheek. _It hurts…It hurts so bad…_

She winced as his hand winded back again for a third swing, but her hands were working ahead of her. Akari placed one hand on the boy's chest, right above his heart, and one hand on his forehead. Her eyes widened and then shut as she felt…something. It was a flitting feeling, a bit like how sleep renews a person. But this felt much better than sleep, and she could feel the energy she was absorbing somehow. The boy threw his third punch, aimed at her nose. It hit and she felt what intuition told her was blood trickle down to her lips, but the blow wasn't as rough as it had been before.

He crumpled to the ground before he could hit her again, and Akari dropped to her knees to wipe at her nose and lips with the back of her arm. Instantly pain jolted her again, as the area was still raw from the blows. She caught Mamoru looking out the window, and when he saw her face she could see him blanch. Akari glanced at the boy in front of her, successfully unconscious, and sneered at him.

_If he wasn't going to let the fight finish, then neither will I._

So she stood up on her shaky legs and stepped closer to him, arms wobbly as she tried to keep her balance. Her jaw hurt, and the blood from her nose was running down to her chin, but she didn't care. Akari would do anything to make him feel pain—to make him suffer as much as she had from those super-powered blows to her face. She kicked at the side of his face, knocking his head askew and letting her see his face fully, He wasn't bleeding yet. It wasn't good enough.

She kicked again, aiming for his cheek, and hit harder than she had expected because his head was knocked back a few centimeters. If he had just left it alone, this wouldn't have had to happen. Akari kicked again, hitting with the front of her shoe. A gruesome yellow blob of muddled green and purple formed instantly. His blood started to trickle down to his nose.

Again, she kicked and aimed straight for his nose, hearing a satisfying crunch as she made contact. It was sickening, grisly, haunting, but Akari loved every second of it. _Justice…retribution…revenge…it doesn't matter what you call it, I love it. This power, it's really addicting._

She targeted his forehead next, intending to bash his brains in before a hand had grabbed her by the back of her collar and pulled her away from the boy. Akari was waspy, and intended to attack the person who had stopped her, but when she turned around all she got in return was a grating sort of laugh thrown at her.

There stood a woman in front of her, with curly auburn hair that hardly made it past her ears. She wore sunglasses and carried a bō staff in her right hand, the one that she wasn't currently gripping Akari. She was a jonin, as evident by her vest and a fishnet shirt that eventually ran out of fabric and faded into tan skin around her elbows. Her hazy green cargo pants ended in the middle of her shins, and her sandals wrapped around her ankles securely.

"I think you've proven your point by now, and he's not fighting back. Kicking allies when they're down is low, and you don't do it figuratively or literally. Got it?" Akari nodded, thoroughly confused and yet awed by the sight of a jonin. The only ones she had known were adults, but this lady wasn't like any of them and it had Akari curious as to why she was butting in. She hadn't done anything wrong, had she?

"You're Hatake Akari, right? Nice to meet you, I guess, I'm your new sensei. For the record, that fight was pretty shitty. You're not going to get anywhere if you avoid taijutsu and can't even use your ninjutsu correctly. That Dragon Style technique is difficult to master, and you shouldn't use it in such close combat because you could easily burn yourself. Who taught you that, anyway?" The little girl opened her mouth to speak, but regretted it as soon as her jaw popped and she whimpered. "Never mind. Grab the boy that you were beating up because you're going to carry him to the hospital."

Akari winced at that, but followed orders and leaned down to grab his arm. She slung it over her shoulder and stumbled at the extra weight. He was twice her size, how could she manage dragging him across the village by herself?

"It hurts, doesn't it? Well, that's called _taking responsibility for your actions_. Deal with it, and next time you'll know better than to pick fights with anyone. Now hurry up, I'm supposed to get to know you and those other two, so we'll have to make this quick before it gets too late."

"Ow," Akari groaned, her jaw aching as she opened her mouth to breathe.

"Hold still and it won't hurt." She flinched.

"Ow!"

"Stop moving," was the jaded reply.

"But it hurts!"

"Well whose bright idea was it to get in a fight in the first place?! I should make you do this yourself, but I'm being nice and cleaning up your face for you. You're welcome, by the way." Her new teacher didn't sound very mad, just a little frustrated and maybe jaded. Akari held her nose clamped shut to stop the blood that still dripped out while her sensei wiped at her face with a wet cloth that Mamoru had gotten from somewhere. The boy she had beaten up (turns out his name was Eiji and his parents weren't happy with an unconscious and bloodied son), was left at the hospital after Akari was forced to explain what had happened and why she had injured him.

Apparently her sensei had gone inside to tell Mamoru and Itachi to wait in the building until the fight was over, and then they were supposed to meet in the training area out in the forest. That's where Akari was taken, at least, and they seemed to be waiting for the two of them to appear before sitting up straighter on the ground and looking up obediently.

Now, they were slouching and waiting for Akari to get cleaned up. Her right cheek had taken the most damage and as a result, there was a sizeable bruise that made her look like she was carrying wads of gum in her mouth. Her nose was also swollen and red and it hurt for her to speak.

"Look here," Her sensei pulled her face to look at her, which made Akari gasp at the immense pain. The jonin let go as soon as she saw this, commanding her student to open her eyes. "Does your head hurt?"

Akari pointed to her cheek and nose.

"Other than where you were punched, you little shit. Like a headache." She shook her head, and the lady sighed in a hasty relief. "Your pupils look fine, too. You don't have a concussion, so you'll be fine during training. It's going to hurt, probably a lot, but that's what you deserve after getting into a fight like that."

"What was I supposed to do? I won fair and square without him getting too hurt, but then he attacked me again so of course I—"

"Threatening him and talking smack like that was what got you there, moron. Don't you dare blame it entirely on him, you're at as much of a fault as he is." Her sensei sat her down beside the two boys, squatting in front of them. Akari wondered what color her eyes were. "I have three rules that I will expect you to follow, that's it. First off, you take responsibility for whatever the hell it is that you do. If you burn down a house, you clean it up, pay for the costs, and turn yourself in. If you get into fights, you take the other person to the hospital and explain what you did and then you deal with whatever consequences you get.

"Second, you don't back down from responsibility in missions. You're learning from this, so it's up to you to get shit done. Third, you work as a team. If you don't work as a team in every single damned mission we do, I won't let you take the Chunin Exams and I will personally sabotage all the work you've been doing. I am not your mommy, I am not your friend, and they don't pay me enough for me to be considered your babysitter. I'm here to make sure that your 'bright little minds' don't end up going to waste. That being said, we are also teammates so you're going to have to work with me as well. I will work as your overseer, not your commander. Anyone care to tell me the difference between the two?" Itachi piped up passively.

"Does it mean that you're just going to sit back and watch when we go out on missions?"

"More or less. You're going to have to come up with your own strategies, planning, whatever you want for missions. I'm going to teach you how to do this, but you're going to be more or less on your own for missions." She sat back onto her rear, setting her bō staff flat on the ground beside her right leg. "Now, personal questions for each and every one of you. I want to know your name, age, if you have any kekkai genkai, and what you want to do later on in life. Also, family would be cool since you're all three from some famous families. I'll even start if you want."

The lack of a response was all she needed to know, so she raised her eyebrows and sighed.

"Alrighty then. I am Toshiko Shione, call me sensei or Shione-sensei. I am going to turn sixteen on March 3rd, so in two months. I have a kekkai genkai that took my sight by the time I was eight, but I have better chakra than your native Hyuuga clan so it usually equals out except when I try to go walking, which is why I carry that big stick around. It's also good for whacking people, which is one of my favorite things to do. After I get these hours logged from the Hokage, I want to go into Anbu's specialized hunter-nin program. My mom died when I was 7, and my dad's not interesting and I only get to see him when he sends me pictures in the mail so there's that. I don't have any siblings. Mamoru?"

"Oh, um. I'm Senju Mamoru and I'm nine. I don't have a kekkai genkai. I don't really know what I want to do, but I think I want to be a doctor and medic. Um, my dad died before I was born and my mom's doesn't live here and so I came here when I was 7. I don't have any brothers or sisters. I don't know much about my family, actually, since my mom never really talked about it." Shione-sensei nodded, taking in the informational onslaught.

"Okay, that's still cool. What about you, Akari?"

"I don't wanna," she whined adenoidally, fingers still holding the blood in her nose. "It hurts to talk."

"Then stop complaining and get to the point, it's your turn." Akari groaned and scowled, wincing when she felt pain as she moved her facial muscles.

"Fine. My name's Hatake Akari. I'm four. I don't have a kekkai genkai either. I'm going to be the best shinobi in the village, even better than any Hokage. I don't want to talk about my family."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to." She snapped, bemoaning it when she felt another ache of pain from her jaw. Shione's fingers reached for the ground, picking at the blades of grass that she found.

"Well too bad. You don't have to go into details, just close family members and that's it."

"Ugh, but I don't want to."

"You don't have to want to, just do it."

"Fine." She vehemently spat, narrowing her eyes. "My mama and papa are dead and I hate my big brother, happy?"

"Exponentially. Itachi?"

"My name is Uchiha Itachi. I'm 7 and should be able to activate my sharingan soon. I hope to take over my father's position in the Police Force after entering and leaving Anbu. My father is head of my clan, and my mother is alright. I'm supposed to get a little brother sometime in July." Shione grinned at him, plucking a few more unfortunate blades of grass.

"I like how you worded that, like you're expecting someone to mail you a package. That's adorable." She jumped up, brushing locks of auburn from her face. "Anyway, we're going to start actual training tomorrow. In the meantime, we're going to do some ordinary trust falls and then we'll play a few games of telephone. Everyone in?"

"That sounds stupid! You're supposed to teach us cool new jutsu, not that we shouldn't trust Akari-chan. If you're just going to waste our time, what's the point of staying here?" Mamoru complained, and Akari slowly nodded to make sure that her jaw wouldn't make her face feel like it was melting. Shione flopped onto her back, groaning in aggravation at the two and their antics.

"See, this is why you guys aren't going to get anywhere. Itachi, you seem like a reasonable and thoughtful sort of guy, would you care to take a guess as to why we would play such trivial games?" It took him a few thought-provoked seconds and a bit more time to get the look of complete and utter disapproval off his face.

"Well, we'd pass along information in telephone, which improves communication between us. And these both seem to improve trust in one another, which I suppose could go with your whole rule on working as a team. Is it something like that?"

"Precisely. Good to know that someone uses the brain that they have been given. I can see how you ended up at the top of your class, you're such a smarty. So anyway, I want Akari to be the trustee and Mamoru to be the truster for this first part."

"What does that mean?"

"That you're going to fall on Akari. Blindfolded. So put your headband over your eyes." Mamoru was appalled at her lack of logic, looking down at the wide-eyed and frantic little girl that he was supposed to trust.

"Shione-sensei, she's not even half my weight or height, how do you expect her to be able to hold me up? Aren't you being a little hard on her?"

"So are you saying that you don't trust Akari?"

"He's saying that there's no way in hell that I could hold him up!" Akari surprisingly defended him, which caused Shione to smirk. She still didn't sit up to talk to the kids, instead straightening her legs to lie spread-eagle on the ground.

"Well with that sort of attitude, you'll never get anything done. If you don't think that you're strong enough to do that yet, make yourself strong enough. I think you'll be surprised with what you can do if you really put your mind to something and use your scrawny little girl limbs to actually do instead of complain. Both of you get up and get going now before it gets too late and we won't have enough time to go out for ramen afterwards."


	8. Sweet Dreams

**A/N: So uh, sorry for not posting this. I didn't originally want to add this in, but I figured I'd add in a little fluffiness before everyone dies. So these next three or fours chapters will just be a bunch of additives to show character development (which is important, so don't skip these), and then I'm thinking of shipping our new Team 4 off to a different country just because I can. Really, this is still just a whole bunch of introduction stuff before the fun begins!**

**As always, I'd like to thank every one of you who are reading this right now. I'd also like to give special thanks to:**

**kani-leek-lover for favoriting,**

**wildcrazything for following,**

**Yuki101 for favoriting,**

**Thatonekidnobodylikes for reviewing,**

**April Showers Bring Me Flowers for following,**

**534667lc for following and reviewing,**

**And Blaze Grayson for following.**

**Also, slight language in this chapter. Enjoy~**

* * *

A knock sounded at the front door, which Akari responded to first in her eternal energy. "I got it!"

"Check to see who it is first." Minato gently reminded, making the little girl nod and look out through a crack in the door. She promptly widened the opening and grabbed her new sensei's hand when she saw her wavering in the doorway. Her bo staff apparently wasn't enough to help her out in homes and the forest, from what Akari could tell of the three days she had spent getting to know the jonin. Team assigning had been on Sunday, and today was Tuesday, but it didn't explain why her sensei was visiting her at her house.

"Hey Akari-chan, how're your wounds doing?" Akari touched her face, having forgotten about the marks and bruises when she wasn't in front of the mirror or touching her face.

"They don't hurt so much anymore, 's long as you don't touch 'em. What're you doing here?"

"Here to introduce myself to your parents or guardians." Shione let herself follow her student, who stood her in front of the couch and set her down gently. "Could you grab everyone here? I would but, I don't know where steps and other things are so—"

"Oh, sure." Akari stood on the seat of the couch to peer over the back. "Jisan, bachan, Shione-sensei's gotta talk to you!"

"And your brother, if that's him upstairs. I hope it's not too much to ask." Akari crinkled her nose at her sensei, wondering when she turned so nice and polite and hoping Itachi hadn't rubbed off on her too much. Despite the rough way Shione had acted that first day, she was a fair and respectable jonin who had instantly clicked with Akari even with their differences.

"Kakashi! Get your butt down here!"

"Akari!" Kushina hissed, pursing her lips and furrowing her brows. "You should know better than to yell up at him. He might be sleeping!"

"And it disrupts our neighbors, too. Wouldn't it be easier for everyone if you just walked up there and got him yourself?" Minato amicably mused, stacking piles of papers on the table.

"Why can't you get him?" She shot back.

"Because I'm pregnant and Minato's working." Akari groaned, slipping off the couch to stomp up the stairs and into her brother's room. It was silent on the main floor until Shione cleared her throat.

"...So you have to deal with that every day?"

"Pretty much. She's normally really sweet though, as long as you don't bring Kakashi into it. Those two mix as well as oil and water, and they fight every time they talk to each other. It's all we can do to keep them apart so they don't burn the house down." Kushina laughed awkwardly, sitting in front of her adopted child's sensei.

"They're not that bad, Kushina. You just have to know how to handle them both."

"No, they're not that bad individually. It's completely different if you stick them in a room together. Akari's too much like her mother for her own good, always having to start fights to prove her point."

"I wasn't aware that Akari's mother had influenced her so much." Shione murmured softly. Kushina bit her lip, shaking her head.

"I think it's mostly genetics. Her mother died before Akari had even opened her eyes."

"And you're sure that it doesn't have anything to do with being around you for most of her life?" Minato jested, earning him a pillow thrown at his mountain of work. The papers tumbled down with a sound that Shione thought uncannily resembled the wings of a bird taking flight."I just finished sorting those!"

"Do you need any help with those, Hokage-sama?" Minato opened his mouth to accept her offer, until Kushina cut him off.

"He can do just fine on his own. Thank you though, Shione-san."

"Just Shione's fine, Kushina-san. But I would like to talk to you about Akari and a few questions I have about possible emotional or behavioral issues and how I'll solve them in her team." It was quiet for while until Kushina curled her hands into her lap and nodded.

"Okay. Where would you like to start, then?"

"I only did a little bit of research on her family history, so please correct me if I'm wrong. Her father was a well-known shinobi, as I've heard, and her mother taught genjutsu in the Academy for a time, correct?"

"Yes, that's right. Sakumo's more visible in Kakashi, however Akari does have a bit of his talent and skill. Her technique is well enough for a child her age, but it's obvious she's more suited for something less physical."

"Why is that? I know she's small, but even someone like that could be taught how to use self-defense at the very least. And I can't guarantee that she won't be thrust into a situation like that out on the field during missions, with times as dangerous as they are."

"Of course, but she does tend to get…violent, as I'm sure you've already seen." Shione grinned wolfishly, remembering the brawl outside the Academy just a few days ago. "She has a few diagnosed psychological illnesses, but we've been reassured by every doctor that she's seen that it should grow out of her with enough love and compassion and proper parenting. You have to understand, after seeing what happened to her father, she has to feel some kind of guilt or anger at it."

"And she relieves her anger…by starting fights with other kids?"

"No!" Kushina instantly barked, face turning aflame at her own outburst. She cleared her throat. "No. That incident at school that you witnessed was the first time any of us had seen that side of her. She usually ignored other kids, but lately she seems on edge. Akari is fine at home, I assure you. No instances of too much stress, she sleeps better lately, I don't know what that was all about."

"Actually, she's had insomnia for quite some time." Minato jutted in after restacking his toppled mountain of signed papers. "Doctors won't give her any medication because they say she's too young and it can get addictive to a certain degree, and we agree. Her psychiatrists in the past told us that it could occur for a child who had witnessed something like a parent's death at such a young age, as part of post traumatic stress disorder. Even so, she's managed to make friends and overcome something like that, so we didn't worry about her much until Sunday when she came home with bruises that she didn't want to talk about."

"So she hasn't been hostile to anyone other than that boy in her class? Not even Kakashi?" Kushina was stricken.

"No!" Shione nodded, looking up at the ceiling, licking her lips.

"I realize that we may be biased as far as she goes, but Akari hasn't shown any signs of hostility before that incident at school." Minato calmly stated, trying to keep his voice steady. Shione didn't know what a sweet girl Akari was, she couldn't understand that talking about her like she was a criminal was frustrating. She didn't know what it was like to have to comfort a toddler who had just watched her father's funeral; to have to take her and her brother in. "She's not interfering with your training methods, is she?"

"No sir, but I just want to know what I'm up against as far as my students go. If I get to know about her, I think I could help her and let her get used to the idea of working as a team. The students like her who typically have such trauma, or even if they're top-scorers, have trouble cooperating with other kids because they're used to relying on themselves. I'm not quite sure what you were thinking shoving such different kids together, but it'll definitely take some getting used to for all of us. I assume that you want them to participate in the Anbu Corps together, Hokage-sama?"

"I suppose that's one way to look at it. I was thinking more along the lines of a more elite genin squad. I noticed that they each scored well in one certain area, and was hoping that it could be more of a student-led group than what you usually see. Just to see how it would work as an experiment of sorts, nothing more." Shione nodded slowly, gradually letting that soak in.

_An experiment…to take the elite members and put them together to see if it'd work…it seems that perhaps you're more biased than I'd originally thought, Hokage-sama. This could pose to be a nuisance to my team, if this is played a certain way…_

If there was one thing Akari liked about Kakashi's room, it was the fact that he had a kotatsu table. The table was originally in the living room downstairs, but it made Kushina nauseous because it was always so humid in the house. It was always warm and perfect for hiding under when she played hide-and-seek with Obito. Of course, he always looked under there first, but the game usually ended up with giggles and naps under the table. The warm quilts on the side didn't help with that, either.

In fact, Akari had loved the table even before she had moved into this house. She'd stuck her feet under the thick blankets on the edges as a toddler when it had gotten cold, and it was so easy to just get trapped under there. She'd made Kakashi crawl under there to get her out and bring her home before, and the image still made her snicker.

"Ne, Kashi, my sensei wants to talk to you." She wrenched open his door fluidly, storming in there and glancing around the room. It looked empty. Akari looked in the closet, behind the door, under his bed, and then went to lift the blanket of the kotatsu table.

Her big brother lie there. His silvery hair unkempt and concealing his lidded umber eyes, curled into a ball on his side, one arm around his knees, one hand creeping to the blanket in front of him, breathing steady and even, made him look tranquil and very much like he had before he had left and never really come back. It would be a crime to wake him up and have to listen to his nagging and chastising, Akari thought.

"Psst, Kashi. Are you awake yet?" She poked at his face, pulling his mask down a little and wondering how he could breathe with it covering his nose. Akari had yet to realize why he even had a mask on when he wasn't actually ugly. Maybe it was to keep Rin away so that she wouldn't ogle his face. "Kashiiiiiii, wake uuuuuuuuup."

"Ngh." He groaned, rolling over and making Akari crawl out and run to the other side. She shoved his shoulder a few times, laying over him to poke at his neck and face.

"Wake up, stupid. My sensei wants to talk to you."

"Get Minato or Kushina then. Let me sleep." He murmured hoarsely, voice raw and unused by his sleep. "Go away."

"Kashi, come on."

"No, leave me alone." Akari, who was now infuriated and out of patience, lifted her head from underneath the table and pulled her foot back. With a quick swing, Kakashi had jumped, knocked his head against the top of the kotatsu table, and howled in pain, spewing brand new curses that Akari had never heard before. She'd have to remember some of those for use later.

"Come on, Shione-sensei wants to talk to you so hurry up."

"Couldn't that wait?" He asked irately, rubbing at his sore head and fixing his mask. "What the hell was so important?"

"I dunno, but sensei wants to talk to you." Kakashi groaned, scooting out from under the kotatsu table and standing up so that he could stretch out his arms and legs. Akari ran out the door, sprinting to the steps and taking them one at a time so she didn't fall and bruise her face even more. At about halfway down, she turned to shout back up the stairs where Kakashi was running at his face and eyes. "Hurry up, slowpoke!"

"Yeah, okay I'm coming. Give it a rest, Akari."

"Come in here, you two." Kushina called, letting Minato sit beside her when she scooted onto the middle cushion. Slowly the two walked into the room: Akari as an eager child and Kakashi as the weary older brother. He was still rubbing his eyes with his fingers when he sat on the floor beside the couch. Akari took the spot on the other side of Kushina.

"Okay, so I'm sure that you know that today's New Year's Eve. So, I was planning on having you guys and the other kids' families and friends over at my house for food and a party because I would like to introduce myself to my kids' parents so we can get off on the right foot. Plus, I think it's necessary for the kids to be able to have fun with each other and get to know one another before we shove them into situations where they will be in danger. I'll make soba noodles and rice cakes for the kids, but if you want to bring something you can. You can stop by anytime near dinner."

"How many people are you expecting to show up?" Kushina murmured, watching Shione mentally tally up the people.

"I'm making food for 20 people, and if there are leftovers I plan to hand them out to whoever wants them. So far I've got a definite number of 12. And then with you four, that'd be 16, plus whoever else you want to bring with you."

"Then let's go ahead and say 18, with Rin and Obito." Minato murmured, watching Akari jump in her seat with a silly grin on her face.

"Make it 17 then; I'm not going." Kakashi countered, bearing his shoulder against the couch.

"You should go out for a change, Kakashi. It'll be good for you," Kushina growled, slitting her eyes at him. "You should socialize with people."

"I am not going to socialize with 7-year olds. Besides, Akari wouldn't even want me there so don't try to tell me to do this for her." Shione clenched her fingers into a fist, furrowing her brow before sighing in resignation.

"Kushina-san, I don't mean to impede or act impolitely, however I believe that Kakashi has a point. If there were only 7-year olds there, I wouldn't make you come. And as far as Akari has told me, you're right about her not wanting you there. However, I will be there as well as the people that I can only assume are your teammates and several other kids in a variety of ages. You are being extremely rude to these people who didn't have to take you in and don't have to deal with your shitty attitude." Akari's smirk only widened, and she beamed at her sensei as she continued to chastise her brother.

"You can't force me to go to this stupid party. It's pointless and a waste of my time, which I could be using for something better. I don't have to go, and I won't because I'll find something meaningful to do instead. Besides, this doesn't affect me either way because I'm not part of your team and I don't know anyone else on your team." The tension between the two was tangible.

"Alright! I think that's enough for today. I can't wait to see you tonight, my house is just off of Market Street, third on the left. I'm told you can't miss it because it's yellow." Akari, sensing that her teacher wanted to leave now, stood up and grabbed Shione's hand again to pull her out of the living room and to the front door. "Thanks Akari. See you later."

"Okay, bye Shione-sensei! Can you get back home on your own." The auburn-haired jonin raised her hand as a wave in the general direction of the house.

"I'll be fine," Akari nodded, shutting the door behind her and entering back into the room that the rest of her family still sat in. Kushina was laughing, Kakashi was sulking, and Minato smiled.

"I knew there was something I liked about her. She's so rude and blunt and a little lazy, but she's a good fighter. Just like you, Akari."

"Hey! Ne, that's not nice Kushina-bachan!"

"Do I really have to go, Minato-sensei?"

"Oh lighten up a little, Kakashi, a party would actually be good for you and your people skills."

"I don't need people skills to be a good shinobi…"

"Akari, would you like to go find Obito and Rin with Minato?"

"Yeah!"

And so it became a cheerful evening with optimistic excitement from most (except Kakashi, who just groaned and went back upstairs to see if they would let him sleep instead of going to the party). Akari and Minato quickly found and got an RSVP from Obito and Rin before getting back home to Kushina taking out ingredients to make a simple osechi-ryori.

Her official assistant cook helped her cut the daidai (bitter orange) with a butter knife. Akari was also pleased to help pick apart the spinach leaves to put in the zoni (clear soup) while Kushina sliced meat and grilled mochi to put into the stock before putting in a few more savory items to make it smell citrusy and look better. Akari also got to help slice the kombu seaweed while Kushina held the knife and boiled it to put under another dish for decoration.

By the time all the other dishes were done for 20 people (just in case other people came, Kushina explained), Akari and Kushina were both tired. Since it was only midday and they expected to leave around dinnertime for the festivities, they both took a nap.

Minato finished the last of his paperwork with a few glances at them on the couch before pulling a blanket over the two of them. He went upstairs to check on Kakashi, who had been quiet since Shione's visit (not that it was abnormal, but because he hadn't even come down for lunch). The boy was sleeping innocently under the kotatsu table, which caused Minato to stifle a laugh with a shake of his head.

It really wasn't right for Kushina to force him to go with her motive of torturing the kid because of how he treated Akari. There was definitely a rift between Kakashi and his sister, which meant there was also an unreachable gap between him and Kushina. It wasn't hard to tell that Kushina really treated Akari like her own child since she was helpless and needy when Kushina had first taken care of her, while Kakashi was sort of thrown under a bus. Minato was typically the mediator between everyone, trying to reach out to an uncooperative Kakashi.

It wasn't like there was anything more he could do. The boy didn't want to help himself by being kind to people and didn't think he needed other people in the first place. He was isolating himself despite anything his sensei tried to do to help him. Plus, Kakashi was a teenager, and it seemed that this sort of rebellious nature was unavoidable.

But when Kakashi was asleep, Minato couldn't help but think about how he was still really just a kid. He shouldn't have to isolate himself, especially when he was helping in the fighting of a war. It wasn't right to put him through something like this—to put anyone through it. The boy was, without a doubt, one of the greatest shinobi of his generation. But it really didn't matter if he kept shoving people away and making enemies within his team and other people. Sometimes it felt like he was fighting a losing battle as far as Kakashi went.

The door opened to a lighted room with people already filled in it, talking softly in bunched-together groups. It almost looked like it was staged, except for the little fact that Akari knew from experience that Itachi's family wouldn't be much for socializing—except maybe his mom. And Mamoru stood with Iruka and two other genin that Akari distantly recognized. An older boy with short hair stood with Itachi and it was mostly his animated talking that kept their conversation going while Itachi simply nodded. Another man with shaggy brown hair sat on a tatami on the floor, drinking something that looked like tea, and Akari had no clue who that was.

Akari had noticed the pretty kadomatsu of short pine branches and bamboo on either side of the entryway. Thick ropes of shimenawa were threaded through the ceiling rafters and above the entrance, the zigzag strips of paper—shide —hanging down in singular strands. They made a soft swishing sound that accompanied the chatter in the room gently. What looked like a neatly decorated kamidana sat on a shelf near the area where the living room faded into the kitchen.

"Oh, hey Akari. Hokage-sama. Kushina-san. Kakashi-san. Who are your guests?" Shione asked, a faint smile appearing across her pale lips. Akari took the initiative to speak.

"Obito and Rin, they're my friends." Shione grinned and motioned for them to walk inside. The house was rather large for one person, with three rooms combining to make the main space and one room closed off, which could only be Shione's room. Food was set on a large foldable table, with various drinks labeled beside it. Obito and Minato placed the food they carried beside the other food, and Akari sat her one box beside their stacks, feeling rather accomplished that she had been able to help out.

"So, now that everyone's here, you can dig into the food sitting on the table. Kids can go outside to eat, and parents can stay in here and talk or whatever. We'll play games outside, and parents can join in if they want to." Slowly Akari filed out of the house after grabbing a rice cake and one of Kushina's prepared meals. She nibbled on the sweeter rice cake as she took a seat on the ground, feeling the grass tickle her legs as imaginary insects crawled onto her toes. Obito sat beside her, and she watched Kakashi lean against one of the few trees in the backyard, followed by Rin who tried to make friendly conversation.

Akari pulled tight on the mint green and navy scarf that Kakashi had given her, frowning at his glower and apparent hatred of the world. Why couldn't he just let himself be happy for once? It had been ages since she had seen him truly smile because he was happy. Didn't he know that being serious all the time wasn't going to make anything better?

Her fingers blandly tugged at the gloves she had gotten from Rin, and she blinked at the chilly wind that assaulted her. She'd left Obito's spare goggles at home, scared that she might lose or scratch them. They were too precious for her to actually wear most of the time, and she loved them too much to move them from her bedside table ever since she'd gotten them at her father's funeral, except for special events.

"Hi, I'm Senju Mamoru." Akari was knocked out of her spasmodic reverie and she swung her head around to look at Mamoru, who was seating himself in Obito's direction. "It's nice to meet you."

"Oh, I'm Uchiha Obito. It's nice to meet you, too." Mamoru only grinned that stupid little smile he always wore; the one that made him seem like he was such an innocent little ditz.

"I figured that. Akari always talks so highly about you that I figured that you'd be the only one willing to sit near her. She just goes on and on about you during training, so I guessed—"

"Shut up! I don't do that!" Akari stood, nearly knocking her food over if Obito hadn't caught it and set it down on the grass. Her cheeks burned red, and she reached over to grab Mamoru's collar and scowled at him fiercely. "Stop lying!"

Obito sheepishly smiled up at the two of them, sticking his arms out to pick Akari up and place her on his shoulders. She promptly stuck her tongue out at Mamoru, acting as childishly as she wanted as she held onto Obito's goggles to keep from falling.

"Can't you keep that temper of yours in control long enough for us to eat, Riri? You can beat Mamoru-san up afterwards, okay?"

"Obito-san, you're supposed to help me out! I figured we were closer friends than that; you can't let her just attack me and break all my bones! That girl's vicious!" Obito only laughed when he looked up at Akari's tiny form on his shoulders. She was helpless.

"Akari's too cute to hurt anyone seriously. Plus she's like, 10 kilograms with arms like twigs. Granted, she does look scary when she wants to." She puffed out her cheeks, leaning over to speak to Obito.

"That's not nice, Bito. I beat up a kid last week, remember?"

"Not because you're just so strong, Kari. You hardly eat anything, there's no way you could build up muscles. Which I'm not saying is a bad thing, the part about you not having a lot of muscles. You don't need muscles as a girl, you can get along just fine without them. You should eat more, though, so you can grow like you're supposed to." Itachi, who had just walked out with the other boy who was still talking to him amicably, carried his light plate over to the group of people he somewhat knew.

"Good evening, Akari, Mamoru, Obito-san." Mamoru nodded to him politely, being the first to answer.

"Hey Itachi. What's your name?" The boy with Itachi grinned cutely, and Akari felt her heart flutter when he spoke so smoothly.

"Uchiha Shisui, pleasure to meet you Mamoru-san. And this lovely young lady must be Akari-chan. It's wonderful to finally be able to meet you as well. Itachi's told me a bit about the two of you." Akari puffed out her cheek, wondering where this Shisui guy got the idea that he could just go around calling her a lady. She was a warrior, not some dress-wearing housewife like Rin would gladly end up being!

Even so, she wondered if acting overtly nice was an Uchiha trait that had skipped over Obito. She reminisced on the time that she'd found him in his apartment while cradling a picture of Rin which he had then thrown at her in a slight panic as his cheeks smeared a dark scarlet. It caused her to smile at least.

"Good to see you're doing well, Shisui and Itachi. How are things with you two?" She sighed longingly at her food, which Obito had left on the ground. As if sensing her hunger, Obito reached up to stuff a bite of rice into her mouth with a skill that Akari hadn't known he'd had. She might be biased about him in a lot of things, but she knew Obito was a klutz who could hardly keep on his feet during missions (as far as Rin had told in her stories).

But Kushina made good food, and Akari wasn't complaining. Especially not as Rin walked over and sat across from Obito, with Kakashi sitting a small distance from her. He refused to look at her, and so Akari figured he was still pouting over being forced to come. He could at least try smiling, she thought. But the thought of Kakashi smiling was something foreign to her.

Shisui seemed to be one of the few—if not, then the only one—who weren't daunted by Kakashi's vapid grimace. He turned to the new members of the group, ready to greet them once he'd swallowed the food in his mouth. Itachi ate silently at his side, the perfect illustration of meek politeness around company. He offered no conversation, but replied to anything thrown his way by Obito, who seemed interested in what he was doing to train at home. He still managed to keep feeding Akari at every other bite he took, and she leaned over to help him out, also snatching his chopsticks after he stabbed her in the nose a third time.

Shione was inside, where a soft banter passed around inside her house. Laughter sometimes filtered through the walls, but other than that Akari couldn't make out anything.

"Akari-chan, are you listening?" Rin's soft, girlish voice snapped her out of her daze, and Akari chewed on the bite of rice cake that Obito had given her. She tilted her head, and it caught Mamoru's eye as he hid a chuckle.

"What?"

"I said that I think you should give Obito-kun a bit of a break and sit on the ground for a while." She didn't want to get down, but she also didn't want to burden Obito. So after the last bite of rice cake, she poked at his cheek and he set her down beside him where her box of food lay untouched. Akari hurried to stuff as much of it into her mouth as physically possible when she thought about what Kushina-bachan would do to her if she found out she hadn't eaten the food they'd prepared.

The red hot-blooded habanero wasn't just a nickname. Akari knew that Kushina was a nightmare when she wanted to be, and her "early pregnancy hormones," as Minato called them, only made her mood swing back and forth more often than a grandfather clock's pendulum. And generally it either made her more gentle, or similar to one of the monsters in Akari's closet. There was no in between.

"Mamoru, I was looking everywhere for you, buddy!" Iruka plopped down beside the addressed, licking the clear sauce of soba noodles off his lips. A girl that Akari sort of recognized sat beside him, her hands shaking as she carefully took a morsel of her soba noodles and gingerly placed them in her mouth. The boy from earlier was with Iruka, too, and Akari wondered if they were the other two genin in his team.

"Oi Iruka, who're your friends?" Iruka glanced down to spot Akari, to her utter displeasure. He grinned down at her stupidly while responding to her.

"I didn't know you were here too, Akari! These are my teammates, Hayato Junichi and Chimori Kasumi."

"Are we going to have circle time where we tell each other our names now?" The corners of Junichi's lips curved upwards at his own joke. Akari couldn't help but think he looked like a dog with his flat nose and big, dark eyes and the black hair that fell onto his face.

Kasumi was silent, and Akari insipidly remembered that she had sat next to the girl during the graduation ceremony at the Academy. She had been so scared of something, and Akari just wanted to know why Kasumi kept shaking. She sat her mostly emptied box on the ground with the growing pile of containers, leaning against Obito as she looked at Kasumi.

"Ne, Kasumi-chan, don't you talk at all?" The girl glanced up meekly, dropping the soba noodles she had picked up with her chopsticks and spluttering to find her words.

"I-I-I-I, uh, I can, um, i-it's just that I don't, um...I don't l-like to talk t-to people...n-not that I h-have anything against—"

"Akari, don't be rude. She doesn't have to talk if she doesn't want to," Rin jutted in, causing her to slit her eyes at the girl warningly.

"I don't have to listen to you, Rin, you're not the boss of me." Obito wrapped an arm around her shoulders, which only made Kakashi's glare turn vehement.

"Be nice, Kari." He smiled, and her heart fluttered in her chest. She could feel its beating like a drum that she tried and failed to keep under control.

The back door to Shione's house slid open, revealing the owner herself as she carried a cup that she sipped out of constantly. As she set her cup down, Shione stretched upwards, her fingers reaching for the navy blue night sky above with the abstract illustrations created by the stars. She angled her neck to get all the kinks out before she spoke.

"If you guys would shut up for a minute, I could tell you about the fireworks that I have hidden in my yard." She waited for any quiet murmurs to mute themselves, leaving them in a cool atmosphere with the sounds of distant laughter from neighbors in their homes and the crowd that always formed on Main Street.

The beatific display of fireworks they lit each year would begin soon, and Akari wondered how much they'd be able to see from her sensei's house on Market Street. The house was only a few blocks away, in a secluded neighborhood set off of the busier streets. Plus the lack of many tall trees in her moderate-sized backyard garden would leave a clearer sight.

"Alright, now that that's over, whoever finds where I hid the fireworks gets them, but you have to be tied somewhere to another person so hurry up and choose your partner. Don't choose someone you already know or are on the same squadron with unless you want to give up your firework privileges."

Immediately, she watched Obito slide over to Rin to sheepishly ask if she'd be his partner. That crossed Obito, Rin, Mamoru, and Iruka off her list as they formed groups quickly. Kakashi, too, but she hadn't wanted to be teammates with him anyway. Frantically, the genins and chunins outside of those four reached for a partner, and Akari was left with only one option: that Kasumi girl from earlier. She had yet to make a move, frozen in place as people and teams milled around her. Akari grabbed her hand to yank her attention from the others so she could ask her a question.

"Wanna be partners?" Kasumi nodded, seemingly relieved as Akari tugged her out of the mass of other kids and out into the midst of the garden. "Where do we look first?"

Her partner shrugged, her muscles tensing up as Akari wrapped her headband around their wrists so that they wouldn't have to hold hands the entire time. Kasumi looked around, but didn't say anything. Akari sighed at her choice, and took the lead in their search for the hidden fireworks.

"What's your problem, anyway? How come you don't like talkin'?" Kasumi shrugged uncommittedly, looking down at her feet instead of at her partner. "You know, we're s'posed to work as a team, and that means you've gotta do some stuff, too."

"I'm sorry." Kasumi muttered lowly. Since her head was bowed, Akari didn't notice that she'd said anything.

"I don't think she'd have buried it, 'cause then we could find it really easy by just looking for the place that looked like the ground's been messed with. So let's check the trees, ne?" Kasumi nodded, grabbing onto Akari's hand as they carefully traveled up the trunk of one of the trees together. Akari didn't really mind, but the other girl's hands were sweaty and cold and she kept shaking the whole time. It was all so confusing to the little girl, but she didn't ask because she already knew that Kasumi wouldn't answer.

However, it was all for nothing when Shisui and Kakashi, in the unlikely pair that they had made, found the box first after only a few minutes. Everyone untied themselves from each other, Akari tying hers onto her upper arm. Shione called out to everyone else, also managing to gather a few adults from inside so that the fireworks show could begin. Amongst those gathered outside were Minato, Iruka's mother Naomi, Itachi's mother Mikoto and father Fugaku, and the man from earlier.

"We're going to start with the fireworks now, if that's alright with everyone." Shione began, opening the box of fireworks but not bothering to light any or hand some out. "Hey tosan, you wanna give these out for me?"

"Sure." The man from earlier responded, reaching for the box and shuffling through the things inside to give out to either adults or kids nearby. Akari blinked at the man, wondering if she'd imagined the part where her sensei had called him her dad. Seeing how she was still with Kasumi at the edge of the crowd, she muttered her surprise.

"O-oh, that's right. You weren't here when she introduced him, were you Akari-chan? But, um, that's really her dad. They sort of look alike if you look hard enough…"

"I guess." Akari conceded, shoving past people to grab some smaller fireworks. Kasumi looked at her, as if asking if she could have a few. She shared a few of the things she'd grabbed, mostly handing the things she didn't know what to do with to Kasumi. Some of the things the other girl threw on the ground with a loud popping noise, and others the girls lit on fire and let the sparks glitter in the night. She even saw Kasumi smile once or twice, even if it was only a small grin.

The colors that lit up the sky couldn't compare to the show that Akari had seen last year with Minato and Kushina, and they were nothing like the ones she'd seen with her dad and Kakashi. It seemed that each year they only got worse and couldn't outshine the ones before. Still, it was pretty impressive while it lasted, even if the display physically assaulted her ears.

At the end of the screaming and running around and when the fireworks had all been wasted, everyone sat in their little groups. Akari found a place on Minato's lap beside Obito on one side and Kushina on the other, and imagined Kakashi stood somewhere nearby and Rin sat beside Obito. Itachi sat beside his mother and Shisui while his father stood behind them, alert. Mamoru sat beside Iruka and Iruka's parents, while the other two members of Iruka's team sat without much to do but simply sit. Kasumi started to nod off and had to have Junichi shake her awake every so often. The people formed a shape that somewhat resembled a mixture between a circle and a triangle.

"So now that we've used up all the fireworks, let's play a game or something." Shione's father muttered, beginning to walk inside.

"Bring the deck of cards out, we can play karuta." Shione called back, receiving a growl that her father knew what he was doing and a slammed door. She sighed, sitting on the ground with everyone else. "Lovely man, isn't he?"

A nervous flutter of mixed emotions came from the crowd, but Shione ignored them and began to speak again. The fact that she abruptly changed topics didn't get past Akari.

"Okay, so if you don't know how to play karuta, all you have to do is pick out the card that I call out, and we'll make it easy and not call out poems since there are young kids here. If you cheat or anything like that, you'll lose a card. The person or team with the most cards at the end wins the game." Shione's dad opened the door again, holding out his cards to his daughter and sitting down beside her to help her scatter the cards everywhere.

"5 of hearts." Shione called. Minato reached over Akari and grabbed the card located near them, handing it to her to hold on to. The next few rounds continued, with Iruka's mother's eventual win. It was all so boring to Akari because she didn't know the names or shapes on the cards and didn't understand how people could count the pictures so quickly. She didn't know what numbers looked like written down, only the words that she had taught herself through reading. It was boring, but she started to pay attention to the odd figures on the cards. Until she got distracted by the show that went off on Main Street

When she couldn't stand sitting in the same spot any longer (sometime during the first minute of the second game), she got up and started walking back inside to see if she could get any sweets she might've missed the first time. Since nobody was watching her, no one would notice if she took a few, right?

Akari jumped when she heard the door open from the outside, stuffing the rice cakes behind her back as she glanced to see who had followed her. She slumped in relief when she only saw Mamoru, walking inside to grab something to drink.

"Hey Akari-chan, are you happy we got to graduate?" She snorted, sitting down on a tatami mat and nibbling on a rice cake. It wasn't ice cream, but it was sweet and sticky and messy, which was just the way she liked it.

"Of course, stupid. We're ninja now."

"Yeah, but so what?" Akari hesitated, not understanding what his problem was.

"So we can help people and stuff."

"Do you really think we'd be helping people? When we're all grown up, we're gonna be sent off to war to kill people." It was quiet with just the lull of sound from outside. The things people said were muffled by the sliding door, and the house seemed to hold its breath. Not even the usual creaks and random noises filled the air. It was surreally untroubled.

"You think too much."

"Yeah, that's what my mom always told me. 'Mamoru, you've got a good mind but you don't know how to use your gut,' or something like that. I don't think she ever liked me very much." Akari turned her head to see his stupid little grin, which hadn't faded in the slightest.

"Doesn't that make you mad?" Mamoru blinked, shaking his head and shrugging nonchalantly.

"Nah, it doesn't make me mad."

"But your family's s'posed to like you at least a little, aren't they?" Again, she earned a shrug. Akari tightened her fingers around the rice cakes she'd taken, cracking a few of them into pieces.

"I never really got to know my family much. I think that's why I like you, 'cause you don't either. It's just that you get really mad about it and I could care less." A shout from outside must've meant that someone won the game, but they paid it no mind other than a startled peek at the door. "I never liked my mom much anyway. She never really paid me any attention. It was always my cousin who took care of me, but she was only five years older than me so she didn't really know what she was doing."

"Why aren't you mad? Your mama didn't even take care of you when she should've, and your cousin made you wanna run away. You should be mad."

"I figure I'm happier now than I was before so I don't care about that. I didn't have any friends before, and my family was garbage. Now I've got Iruka and a better family and you, so I'm happy now that I'm staying in the same place." The back door opened, revealing Itachi as it slid back into place to seal them away from the crowd outside.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I was sent to get you both to tell you that the bells will go off soon. Sensei wants us out there with everyone else." Itachi humbly stated, bowing his head a little to add to the effect. Akari rolled her eyes.

"Tell her to give us a few minutes." Mamoru asked, brushing away the choppy, honeyed bangs that fell into his face. "It can't be that late already,"

"It's nearly midnight." Itachi swayed, but didn't press the matter any further. In fact, he sat down amidst the other two and rubbed at his eyes. Akari grinned wolfishly, laughing at the fact that he looked so tired.

"Getting sleepy, Itachi?"

"Aren't you?" She shrugged, stretching her arms out and leaning back on them as she straightened out her legs.

"Not really. I normally don't go to sleep until a lot later than this, so it's not that bad." Mamoru quizzically glanced at her, face something between a grimace and a look of disapproval.

"When do you go to sleep then? You're just a kid, you should get a lot of sleep while you can."

"Sometimes I go to sleep when the sun rises, sometimes I don't sleep at all." She didn't mention anything about her nightmares; they'd only think she was being a baby. In fact, the only person she'd really disclosed that information to was Minato because in the early mornings she wasn't in her right mind. He'd tried to make her tell him everything about them, even going so far as to get her a doctor to talk to about it. But by then, she'd already forgotten about most of the things she dreamed about so she made things up to tell the doctor.

"What keeps you up?" Mamoru wondered, wrapping a relatively enormous arm around Akari's shoulders. She clawed at him with her tiny fingers, shooting him a glare as he only smiled and pulled her to his side.

"I just don't like sleeping." Itachi decided not to say anything against Mamoru and Akari as they both started pulling each others' hair, poking each other in the ribs, biting, and anything else either could think of. He'd only seen them for a few days, but it seemed that was how they operated as friends.

The rest of the people outside quieted down, and the three inside listened in confusion. Before they could speak, a chime rippled through the house. It was followed by a chorus of other sounds, forming a mismatched tune that sounded off-key and yet calming at the same time. Akari tried to count the individual sounds, but there were too many to discern each separate noise.

"Well, happy New Year's." Mamoru murmured so low that Akari could hardly hear him. Itachi didn't respond.

"Happy New Year's." Akari acknowledged, crossing her legs as those outside poured inside to see what was taking them so long.

She held her arms up to Minato, letting him pick her up as cheerful words of celebration scattered around the room and different forms of embracing ensued. Akari didn't feel like celebrating, really. It was just another day and another year to live through. She felt tired, but not the sleepy sort of tired. Being around other people she didn't know always made her tired like this.

"I wanna go home, oji." He kissed her temple, smiling at her.

"We'll leave soon, Akari. I think we're just going to clean things up a bit first, alright?" She nodded, shutting her eyes and trying to focus on the sounds of bells in the distance instead of the deafening chatter of people inside. Her eyes drifted to a corner of the room, where Kasumi slumped against the wall in a half-asleep daze away from the crowds. Akari didn't get down to talk with her; didn't want to leave the spot she was in. It was a comfort that she didn't want to chase away. It wasn't her job to take care of Kasumi and make sure she was awake enough to get home later, anyway.

She could almost fall asleep just to get away from the crowd of people in the relatively small house. It was suffocating being in there for any amount of time.

Akari didn't know when she'd fallen asleep, but she woke up when she was being nestled under her blankets. Someone put Kitsune-y in her arms, and she hugged the stuffed animal that she'd left behind today. Her headband was untied from her arm and her hair was brushed away from her face.

"Sweet dreams, Akari." She couldn't help the tiny smile that crept onto her face, even though she tried to stifle it. Footsteps on the wooden floor and the door creaking open were the only cues she had to tell her that Kakashi had left. Akari couldn't bring herself to get up for the rest of the night, wondering why he'd been so considerate of her feelings. It was a relief to think that maybe Kakashi could turn back into the same person he'd been before.

And when she eventually allowed herself to go to sleep, whether it was because of his wish or her sudden feeling of happiness, she did have sweet dreams of playing hide and seek in the trees with Kakashi by her old house.

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**A/N: Did you like it? It's really long, so I'm sorry about that. What did you think about Kakashi? I feel kinda bad for him because I was in his shoes a lot a few years back, but he's sweet at the end of the chapter when he tucks her in. What a good big brother he is at the end of the day!**

**Also, this one sort of focused on Akari's relationship with her brother and other generalized kids her age (she's sort of rude and disrespectful, but also a little shy in that she doesn't want to go outside of her little group, as seen when she kind of freaks out at the end and asks if they could go home early.) The next chapter focuses on the changing dynamics of her relationship with Obito, now that she's not dependent solely on him for attention since she has her own team and other new friends from school.**

**After Obito, who would you like to know more about? I'm thinking of doing a chapter from someone else's main point of view, just to change things up a little. I'm wondering if you'd like it from one of my OCs' point of view, or from a different character. I'm really interested in what you have to say, so feel free to pm or review an answer!**

**And don't forget to tune in for the next update!**


	9. Just a Stone's Throw Away

**A/N: D'aw, it makes me a little sad that no one reviewed on the last time, but I guess it's my fault for leaving you guys for so long and then just posting that piece of crap instead of something thought out and developed. I'm sorryyyyyyy! But I personally like this chapter better than the last one, so hopefully you guys feel the same? I'd love to hear from my wonderful readers, whether you're new or have stuck with me the entire time (and if you've been here the whole time, I'd like to especially thank you for being patient and dealing with my awful timing and rewriting!).**

**A special thanks to these two:**

**-Kiiraito for following**

**-Onyx Viper for favoriting**

**Here's to hoping I don't disappoint!**

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"I want the bubblegum ice cream!" Akari exclaimed, making the good-natured server smile down at her. "With candy cane and gummy bears on it!"

"How many scoops?" The lady asked, and Akari looked up at her companion of the day to see what her options were. Obito laughed at her inquisitive face, the way her blue-grey eyes seemed to spark in a silent plea.

"One scoop." He told the ice cream server, while Akari only groaned. "Come on, Akari, you can't eat much more than that anyway. Can I have a scoop of chocolate ice cream?"

"Sure. Would you like anything in it?" Obito thought for a little, remembering how little money he had and how he would need to pay for groceries with it. And then there was the fact that Akari's ice cream alone might clear out half of it. He shook his head.

"No thanks, I'm good." The woman raised her eyebrows, looking from one child to the other. She leaned against the service counter, pulling her hair back so that none of it got into the ice cream containers behind the glass case that separated the customers from the server. Two scoops rested close to the server's hands behind the ice cream, on the service area where she would almost roll out the dessert to press candies and other additives into it.

"Listen, I know you always get chocolate ice cream with chocolate syrup and brownie pieces with chocolate sprinkles on top as much as I know that your little sister right there always orders bubblegum ice cream with whatever weird concoction she can think up for candy. You two come in here nearly every Saturday. I know things must be tough for you, as the big brother of the group and caring for your little sister, but let me help you. This week, your ice cream is on the house for your valued patronage." Obito's eyes shone in relief and gratitude, but he wasn't about to accept a deal that sounded so sweet.

"I can't let you do that, I'm an honest sort of guy." Akari pursed her lips, standing on her tiptoes to see over the large containers of ice cream. She frowned before taking off her genin headband (that sat on her tiny waist to keep her pants up today) and feeling the back of the cloth until she found a little slit. Her little fingers twisted in there until they found a few tens in ryo, and she reached up as tall as she could to hand them over to the lady.

"There, now Bito-nii doesn't have to pay. Is that enough?" The woman finished their orders, placing the ice cream into cones and handing them over to the two kids before making her way to the cash register to add up the totals and cash back amounts.

"You can actually keep most of this, I only needed 74 ryo." The woman handed her the money, also supplying change for her. Obito was shocked that Akari could produce so much money for only being 4 years old and practically having no experience with saving or spending. "Thank you for your business, please continue to come. I'll expect to see you next Saturday, you know."

"Yes ma'am, we'll be here unless something comes up. Please take care." Akari licked at her ice cream until she and Obito had made it outside into the shade of the patio where a few other customers scattered about cherishing their ice cream. Obito blinked at Akari when she sat at the certain table they usually shared in the corner.

"Okay, first of all, who are you and what have you done with Akari?" The little girl looked up at him with a bewildered smile.

"That's a stupid question. I'm me. Are you okay Obito-kun? You haven't been working too much, ne?" His lips twitched upwards into a bit of a smile and he took a bite out of his ice cream, regretting it when he felt the massive brain freeze and chilling that his teeth got. He swallowed with an expression akin to a grimace.

"You're just acting different. I guess you're just growing up though, huh? I never thought I'd say that so soon. Being a shinobi is good for you, though. Speaking of which, how are your missions? Not too bad, right?"

"They're so boring. All we ever do is help with yardwork or giving supplies to people who actually get to go out of the village. Even the training's boring because we play games instead of learning jutsus, and Shione-sensei doesn't do much to help us out." Obito smiled at her anguish over the lack of excitement, watching her take a bite of gummy bears and chocolate syrup.

"Well at least you're out doing things. I would have thought Minato-sensei would lock you up to keep you away from anything that could hurt you after you came home so roughed-up after your team assigning, and then nearly picking a fight during the New Year's celebration at Toshiko-san's house. By the way, you still never told me how that fight at school started in the first place. Was it self-defense?"

"Not exactly," Akari shrugged, licking her ice cream. She got the hint that he expected her to continue when he didn't speak. "He kept saying things like how I was a girl and that I shouldn't be able to be a shinobi, so I offered to show him up and he agreed so we just sort of fought outside. It was supposed to be a fair fight, not something where he was supposed to try and kill me." Obito was shocked, his eyes widening.

"That boy tried to kill you?" Akari opened her mouth, about to say something. For once in perhaps her entire life, she shut her lips and hit the inside of her cheek instead of blabbering on. "You never told anyone he had the intent to kill you. Akari, that's serious, I can understand why Minato-sensei wants to keep you close to home with that incident now,"

"I told the police, but they didn't listen to me since I'm a little girl. They said I was just overreacting, but if I hadn't done whatever I did and made him pass out, I'm sure he would have strangled me or beaten me to death." The way she had said it, so blasè and vapid, made Obito shudder.

"Doesn't that scare you?" Akari sighed, licking her ice cream. She shrugged.

"I dunno, I don't think I really get it. Bachan said I'm lucky to be alive, and she cried a whole bunch but I don't really feel much different, ne." Her face twisted into resentment before she turned it into a charming little grin and continued. "Let's not talk about that though, okay? I've already been yelled at enough for starting the fight anyway, so please be nice."

"O-oh, uh, sure. Sorry." He licked his ice cream, making sure to taste some of the sweet chocolate syrup as well. "So what do you think about your new teammates, Akari-chan?" She shrugged, licking the ice cream that dripped down the cone.

"Mamoru's nice, I guess, but he's an oaf. And Itachi's such a know-it-all, acting like he's better than us."

"What? I always thought he was really humble and polite." Akari frowned, taking a bite out of her gooey bubblegum-and-chocolate flavored ice cream.

"Yeah, but he's definitely faking it. He thinks he's so much better than the rest of us just because he's an Uchiha and knows how to use his Sharingan now."

"Hey, I'm an Uchiha, too!" Obito exclaimed, causing Akari to grin and flush a little. She cocked her head, laughing a little at him as if he were being so predictable.

"Yeah, but you're different, obviously. You're nice and funny, and Itachi's annoying and stupid." Obito smiled strangely at her. "What?"

"Well I'm pretty sure that you've either got a crush on me, or you have a crush on Itachi. I'm not sure which one would be better,"

"I-I don't have a crush on either of you!" Akari blushed at the insinuation, chomping into her ice cream to take a bite out of the cone. "You're like my big brother, and Itachi's unbearable."

Obito grinned good-naturedly, taking a lick from his cone as the sauce gradually oozed down the ice cream. "You're blushing. It's not exactly helping your argument, you know."

"I don't have any crushes!"

"Is it me or Itachi? I can't tell if you're being especially nice to me or drawing attention away from the fact that you have a crush on Itachi." Akari was silent, frowning as she ate her ice cream and stewed in her frustration. She couldn't shake the feeling that maybe she wasn't being honest. Well, everything she'd said about Itachi had been true at least, but she didn't exactly see Obito in the same light that she painted Kakashi in. Everything was different when it came to Obito, simply because he was himself. It made her want to take care of him and make sure he was alright.

"Anyway, have you been on any cool missions lately?" His dark eyes flickered, lighting up at the chance to tell a story about his latest adventure.

"Okay, so you know how I was sent to Suna for that espionage mission on the Kazegake? Well, you see, when we got there, I…" Their conversation continued at a leisurely pace, friendly and kind in the face of each others' company. While the ice cream melted, each child lapped up the frozen dessert, and by the time it was over Akari had gotten hers all over her face in her haste to make sure not a drop landed on the ground or her hands. She also had a wad of bubblegum from her ice cream that she was chewing on, and Obito laughed at the sight she made.

"You look like a horse when you chew like that." Akari pouted, licking the last bits of cone from her fingers and letting Obito wipe off her face with a napkin. "You're such a tomboy, Kari-chan. I can't really imagine you having a crush on anyone if I hadn't seen how you'd reacted to it myself. You haven't told Kakashi, have you?"

"Of course not! Why would I tell him _anything _before you? I don't even like the jerk, I can't see how he's actually my brother. How do you put up with him on your missions?"

"I know, I feel so bad for you having to live with him. The least he could do is act like he's not always miserable, but everyone else always thinks he's so cool and mysterious because he can do a somewhat good job of not screwing things up. I'm just glad that you didn't turn out as annoying as your brother, Kari. Whoever ends up with you is going to be a lucky man," She giggled as he threw the napkin away, blushing at the compliment he'd given her, even if he knew she didn't want to get married, or anything like that later on.

"Hey Obito, can we go to the park today?" Akari asked, standing up and pushing her chair back in as she grinned and grabbed two of the older boy's fingers in her tiny hand. "I wanna show you how I learned to swing!"

"Okay, sure! I'll race you there."

"I'm gonna beat you, though!"

"Don't be so sure of yourself!"

They shoved each other down the road, making sure to do their best to avoid running into passersby on some of the busier streets. The network of roads fell into two main categories: those that branched off of Market Street, named because of the stalls set up to attract tourism and those without a tight grip on their wallets; and those that diverged from Main Street, which had the most important buildings such as the Hokage Tower and Monument, the Academy building, and if followed long enough, the Police Headquarters.

It was sort of a centralized web, so if you followed it out to one of the two parks at the edges, you wouldn't meet very many people. However, that also meant that most of the village thieves lived out on the edges, so not many people from the central area ever came to the parks to play. It was mostly just the people who were close enough to the parks and generally lived in the worst parts of the village that went.

A memory of her father sticking her in one of the baby swings resurfaced, but she stowed it away for another day. This wasn't the time to be reminiscing on bad things, especially not when she was out with Obito!

The race ended with Akari managing to find the adrenaline to burst ahead of Obito—or at least, with the young girl believing so as Obito gradually began to slow and allow Akari to win. She panted, but walked to the swings and sat down. Her companion took a seat on one of the few metal benches in the area, catching his breath after running across town with Akari.

"Obito, watch me!" Akari whined, kicking her legs up in a violent fit and scattering the gravel in an attempt to kick the rocks at Obito. He merely laughed at her, smiling and staring at her as she kicked off the ground and rocked back and forth like a spindle. Her fingers curled around the rusting chains, and she shook a little as she tried to fix her balance in the seat.

"I _am _watching you, Akari!"

"No you weren't, I saw you!" He sighed, standing up to join her in the empty swing to her right. There wouldn't be any way for him to win against her in an argument, he knew. If there was one thing that both she and her brother had both gotten, it was their shared amount of stubbornness.

"I bet I can swing higher than you." He watched her smirk and her eyes glisten at the prospect of a challenge.

"Betcha can't."

"Oh yeah?" Obito kicked out, pushing forward with all his might to swing upwards and fall back while watching Akari struggle to keep up. She laughed despite herself, kicking harder and tipping her head back to watch Obito when he swung back without her. A feeling pit itself in her stomach when she flew down to the ground in the swing, and she laughed at it while gravity and momentum carried her in the swing. There was no way for either of them to swing any higher without flipping over the metal bar attached to the chains of the swings.

But, like most things, Akari got bored of that quickly and stuck her feet out to stop herself. With all the momentum she'd carried, she stumbled and rolled one of her feet over, whimpering at the flash of pain. Obito jumped off the swing when he saw her crumple to the ground, but she stood up and smiled anyway.

"I'm okay." Obito looked at her strangely, doubting her as she limped.

"I think you should get that looked at. If we hurry, we can get to Rin's house and see if she'll patch you up."

"I said I'm fine." Akari stubbornly responded, folding her arms and glowering at her feet. Obito picked her up, but she didn't uncurl her arms. He sent her a pleading look, warm eyes widening as he picked up on the electricity that seemed to pour out of her.

"Hey, was it something that I said? I didn't mean to make you upset, what'd I do anyway?"

"I just told you I was fine, I don't need anyone to look at my foot!" Especially not Rin. Not when it was supposed to just be Akari and Obito and not her. She could deal with a little pain as long as Obito didn't start swooning over Rin and ignoring her. "I wanna go to the river. Sensei took us there to train before, but I wanna show you the jutsu I made up there!"

He grinned, all for the chance to leave the village for whatever reason, but raised a skeptical eyebrow at Akari.

"So you made a new jutsu? That's pretty awesome, Akari." She nodded, pride at her accomplishment soaking into her face as she smugly smirked. The little girl basked in the compliment he'd given her, feeling a rush of heat in her cheeks as her overcast eyes brightened.

"Yep. I just need a really cool name for it to make it off—office—"

"Official?" Obito stepped in, seeing the little girl struggle with the word. Akari nodded frantically, trying to wrap her lips and tongue around the word. She tried her hand at pronouncing it again,

"Yeah! Official; that's what I was saying." Tiny hands were held out to Obito, and she reached up to show that she wanted him to carry her. "So let's go."

He grabbed her underneath her shoulders, holding her up with his forearms and a little effort. She was mostly bones, after all, with hardly any weight as a result. It wasn't that she didn't eat anything—she scarfed down fruits and almost anything even remotely sweet (with the exception of vegetables)—it was most likely her metabolism and an effect of her never sitting still for much longer than a few seconds.

They'd even had her tested for ADHD, Minato had told his team. All it had told them was that Akari was a normal little girl. Of course, having never been around any little girls and Akari practically acting as their first test child, they hadn't known what to expect. Especially when she acted nothing like Kakashi, even before the whole incident with their father dying. They really were polar opposites in nearly everything.

"Hey Obito, d'you know what your chakra nature is?" She asked, drawing his attention from his thoughts. Strange, it was unlike him to be dragged into anything like that.

"Nope. What's a chakra nature?"

"You're a chunin, and you don't know? Well, I guess since you're an Uchiha, you'd have a fire nature, just like me!" She paused, poking his cheek with her fingers. "Minato told you about it before. I was there, remember? I brought lunch for all of you, stupid. How could you forget something like that?"

"O-oh, really? I must not've been paying attention." He cleared his throat, smile wavering ever so slightly. "But what brought that up, anyway?"

"I was just curious." Akari murmured, pressing her finger into his cheek and pushing up to his lower eyelid before he snatched her hand away and looked at her weirdly.

"Knock it off, alright? You know my eyes are sensitive."

Akari became crestfallen when he pushed her hand away. She was only playing; trying to keep his attention even when he tried to focus. It was only a little game, she didn't mean to hurt him at all.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, pressing her face back into his jacket as she solemnly accepted her retribution. Obito shifted her in his arms, earning her attention again. As Akari looked back up at him, she saw a smile playing across his lips.

"Cheer up a little, Akari, I just don't want you messing with my eyes." She nodded but remained silent for the rest of the trip, save for her yawning every now and then to illustrate how her lack of sleep affected her.

"Akari, we're here!" Obito practically sang, dropping the little girl on her feet and watching her windmill to keep her balance on the sandy riverbed. When she caught her foot on a rock, he couldn't withhold his laughter any longer and so he chuckled at her misfortune as she stood up from her bent knees and palms.

"You're not hurt, are you?" His next instinct took over for him as he wiped his eyes, looking her over as she wiped herself off.

"I'm fine." Obito shrugged, wondering what her problem was today. He knew she was a tough kid, but she shouldn't push herself so hard. Even so, she usually wasn't this averse to getting help if she was hurt.

"You're sure you're okay, Akari?" She nodded, but didn't say anything else. "Because if I take you home and you're hurt, Minato-sensei will kill me during training tomorrow."

"I'm _fine_, Obito." He frowned at her downhearted tone, but tried to cheer her up nonetheless.

"Hey, aren't you supposed to show me that awesome jutsu? Come on, cheer up a little! If you're alright, then you're alright, but don't act like you're hurt!"

"I wanna go home." Obito picked up a flattened stone and threw it at the stream, watching it sink into the currents before he looked at her.

"You were just begging to come here, Akari." She puffed out her cheeks, pouting to herself.

"Yeah, but you're being a jerk!"

"How am I being a jerk? I was asking if you were alright."

"After I told you again and again that I was fine! You're so annoying sometimes!" Why didn't he understand that she knew he only wanted her to say that she was hurt so that he could hit on Rin?

"Sorry for trying to be considerate, but you don't really have a right to get mad at me for it." He couldn't wrap his head around what her deal was. Obito was just trying to be nice to her!

"Well if you wanted to go see Rin so badly, then why don't you spend time with her?" Akari screeched, sniffling in frustration. She wouldn't let herself cry, not in front of Obito.

"Who said anything about Rin?"

"That's obviously why you wanted me to say I was hurt; so you could have an excuse to go see her!" Obito blinked, reddening until his face resembled a habanero pepper and Kushina's hair. He spluttered for a little bit, as if he couldn't believe that Akari had caught on to his "_secret_" crush. "You like her more than me, and it's not fair!"

"Are you _jealous_?" She tensed, grabbing a rock and flinging it at the water roughly. It skipped on top of the lazy current.

"So what if I am?! You were my friend first, Rin doesn't even pay you any attention except to treat you like you're stupid and you still like her more than me!"

"I don't like her more than you! I just like you two in different ways is all, Akari!"

"Then how come you always ignore me when she's around? You said you were my friend, but you don't act like my friend whenever Rin's around! It's always about Rin, but what about _me_?!"

"You're just a little _kid_, Akari!"

Try as she might, she couldn't hold her tears in anymore. It seemed that this statement, which reminded her so much of Kakashi's chastising and discrediting, had made her break. She hid her face in her hands, ashamed of the tears that formed rivulets on her cheeks and under her eyes. Her nose started to run, so she wiped it on the back of her long sleeves.

"I hate you."

* * *

Akari walked home alone after that. Well, she started off running, but running all the way across the village with her tiny legs was tiring. After she figured she'd gotten far enough away from Obito that he couldn't follow her, she slowed down to a walk and glared at her feet as she tried to remember the roads to take back to Minato and Kushina's house.

So she walked home sniffling and occasionally wiping her eyes. People sometimes looked at her, and she felt stupid when they did. They had to be thinking about what kind of little girl goes running out on the streets crying like that. They were probably making fun of her, saying mean things about her behind her back. She could almost feel their stares as she rounded Market Street, trying to ignore anyone who might've said hello to her to try to get her to buy some sweets as she usually did.

The only time that she actually stopped was when she bumped into someone who had been intentionally standing in her way.

Even then, she didn't have enough fight left in her to argue. Or rather, she did but she kept to herself because she was scared that her voice would crack and she'd show her emotions and make herself vulnerable. What would people say? They'd call her a crybaby; they'd tell her that shinobi didn't cry. She was such a baby, crying over such stupid things. Obito was nice, but sometimes he was too nice for her.

Hands were placed on her shoulders, making her feel smaller than ever. She really wasn't anything important, where did she get that she'd be even better than the Hokage when she grew up? She'd never even be able to beat her own teammates, much less Minato-oji. She'd always just be a useless little girl, and there wouldn't be anything that could change that.

"Akari, are you listening to me? What's wrong?" She recognized the voice as Mamoru's, but couldn't see him clearly through her blurry vision caused by tears. The urge to wipe her nose with her sleeve overtook her again, and she shifted her body a little and got out of his hands.

He grabbed her wrist anyway, apparently not noticing that she was sobbing and unable to talk.

"Tell me what happened." She shook her head no, trying to rip away from him again. His fingers only tightened around her thin arm, making the skin turn white underneath his grip. "If you won't tell me what happened, at least sit and calm down."

"Leave me alone!" She pivoted from him, wrenching her hands away and starting to run again. All she wanted to do was get home and curl under Kakashi's kotatsu table as soon as she made it there, without having to answer Kushina's questions as to why her face was so red and why Obito hadn't walked her back.

Truthfully, she simply didn't want to talk about it. It was embarrassing enough having burst into tears, but bringing it up again would make the fresh wounds sore again. Mamoru would ask her about it on Monday, when she'd have to return to training with her team. Kushina wouldn't be able to leave her alone if she caught sight of her. Minato might even make her life miserable by asking her questions that she couldn't bring herself to answer. It seemed that everyone was out to get her now because she knew that they would become predators hunting her down if they found out that she'd been upset. They'd pursue her and barrage her with questions and inquiries and quizzes and too many things for her to worry about.

All she wanted was for people to leave her alone when she asked and show her attention when she asked. Why was that so hard for everyone to understand?

When she'd think back on this later, she'd wonder why she hadn't tried to apologize immediately. The guilt would eat her from the inside out until Obito appeared at the door the next week, almost having forgotten everything they'd been fighting over. Which meant it wasn't a big enough deal for him to remember. Which then was placed in the recesses of her mind to pull up whenever she felt down. Which really only made things worse for everyone, but mainly Akari, who began to drift away from Obito and started to rely on herself.

It seemed that the best solution to not getting hurt by other people was to simply not let people in.

As she realized this, the world seemed like a new and darker place than she'd ever thought.

And once she understood this small fact, she could feel herself unwillingly understanding her older brother's choice to avoid people. Maybe he wasn't as stupid or cruel as she thought he was. Kakashi had always been cautious, after all.

She made up with Obito either way, and tried to put the whole mess behind her on that Saturday. However, Akari couldn't seem to let that pain go entirely. Not even as she munched on bubblegum ice cream with chocolate syrup, a chocolate bar, and mochi while he laughed and told her more stories.

Their meetings were like the beginnings of a joke, now that Akari wasn't so reliant on Obito for friendship. It stung a bit, as she still wanted him to like her and nothing could ever fill Obito's space in her heart as her first friend, but she had other people now, too. Mamoru, for instance, who had sought her out and instead of demanding to hear what had happened as he had the first time, had only hugged her and gently asked if she was feeling better. Itachi, who still got on her nerves, was also becoming someone she could depend on to at least smile at her and help her out on missions. Even Shione was becoming a little nicer to her students.

But Obito...Obito was still very special to her. Of course, she knew that he wasn't the savior she'd once perceived him as when he'd stepped in and saved her at her father's funeral so long ago. He wasn't Akari's knight in shining armor, waiting to rescue her from her brother and any pains she felt. If she thought about it long enough, he never really was. It was scary to think about him hurting her again, like he had earlier. Especially when it caused her more pain than she thought anyone else could generate for her.

Her heart still thundered at the thought of being next to him, even though she knew he'd hurt her eventually. She'd forgive him after a while, and he'd go on calling her his best friend. And he'd still pine for Rin, and Akari'd want him to look at her the same way. It was in a manga she'd read, where the boy main character started feeling nervous around another girl and eventually told her that he loved her, even though they'd hurt each other a lot during the course of the manga. Maybe she loved Obito like that.

The thought of it made her stomach churn. Such feelings made her feel vulnerable, and it honestly scared her. If she told him how she felt, she was sure he'd tell her that she was just a kid and that he liked Rin. This feeling for him would only end up hurting her, one way or another, and Akari wished that it would just go away after thinking about it.

It seemed that this was the end of an era, in more ways than one.

* * *

**A/N: Eh, I should probably get to studying for exams anyway. Meh, or not. Review, if you'd please! It makes me so happy to hear from my readers, no matter how big or little your reviews or messages are. Tell me what you think about this, and what I should improve on (or make sure that I don't change!). Also, things are going to start picking up in about two chapters, so stay tuned!**


	10. Magic Hands and Medicine

**A/N: Things are gonna start getting really interesting after this chapter of cute little fluffiness. Don't forget to review if you like this, don't like this, think I should fix this or keep that, etc. Also, I'm sorry for continuously changing the title! I just really can't figure out which one fits the best.**

**A special thanks to the following:**

**pinkiceangelbaby for favoriting**

**True Guardian Angel for reviewing (don't worry, more Obito and Akari are coming up soon!)**

**HatakeFangirlForever for favoriting**

**and ZoraShah for following!**

**Huggles for all my lovely readers!**

* * *

Akari sat on the couch between Kushina's legs, feeling the slight bump that her aunt was now sporting. It had been more than 3 months since she had revealed the news of her pregnancy to Minato and, a few days later, to Akari and Kakashi as well as Minato's other students. This time next year, Kushina and Minato would be parents taking care of their first child as well as Akari and Kakashi. Perhaps they could all be one big family, as the jonin had always imagined in brief daydreams. Of course, that would require Akari and Kakashi to stop fighting, but Kushina wouldn't deny that her daydreams were merely musings.

There had once been a time when Kakashi was a caring older brother for Akari. Moreover, there had also been a time when Akari would rather pick flowers and play in trees than pick fights and play with swords and knives. It seemed that those times had come and gone too quickly.

"Ah, bachan that hurts. You're pulling my hair!" Kushina looked down at the child who wiped her tears away with the backs of her hands in shame.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, Akari. There's no need to cry,"

"It hurt!" Akari whined, sniffing. "And I wasn't crying,"

"If you say so. I really am sorry, though, I didn't mean to pull your hair." Kushina tied the strands of hair together into the strong braid, tugging lightly on it a few times to make sure that the hair wouldn't fall out of place. "Shake your head around a little."

The braid stood through the test, leaving only Akari's bangs free from captivity. Kushina grinned, shoving the little girl off the couch and standing up behind her. She was proud of her work and the fact that it was capable of facing against Akari's excitement and running that would no doubt follow as soon as the little girl left the house.

"Alright, you know the come straight back after giving the team their lunch, and you'd better not aggravate your brother while he's training. Don't talk to strangers, and be nice. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am." Akari answered, brushing her bangs behind her ears even though she knew they'd fall back into her face either way. "I'll be back before it gets dark."

"Come back immediately after so you can help with chores." Kushina corrected irately, voice as sharp as a knife. "Or else you won't go out with Obito this Saturday for ice cream."

"But _obachan_, I don't _like _chores! They're boring. Can't we just let the house stay dirty for the rest of the week?" Going with Obito wasn't as much of a treat as usual these days since she was usually tuning him out to stare at him, but Akari did still enjoy seeing him and having his full attention directed at her. She had to admit that her heart still fluttered when he came to pick her up and escort her to get ice cream, even after she'd tried to stay mad at him. Getting this chance to see him taken away would be heartbreaking to say the least.

"Procrastinating only causes more problems in the long run, Akari. Now, hurry up so you can help me make lunch for us." She nodded, perked up at the prospect of helping make food.

"Okay! I'll be back in a minute!" Akari ran out the door with her four bento boxes in her bag for delivery. There was one for Obito, and Rin, and Minato, and even one for Kakashi, even though she didn't think he deserved it much because he was still a nuisance to her with his constant disapproval of her begging for a real mission.

Since it was already starting to warm up to a little over 10 degrees Celsius, Akari only had to wear long pants and a long-sleeved shirt instead of having to bundle up under Kushina's eyes. Sundays were always boring like this, with her continuous trips to bring Minato's team food for lunch and then get back for chores after wasting as much time as she figured she'd be able to get away with. Occasionally, she'd be able to help make the food for dinner, but mostly she just stayed up in her room and played with her doll and other toys to occupy her own time.

Honestly, she'd much rather be training with her team. Itachi, Mamoru, and Shione were some of her closest friends since she'd had that outburst and lost her temper with Obito. Of course she still considered him her friend, just maybe not in the same way she'd initially thought he was her friend. He still liked Rin more, which still got on her nerves, but something else had changed to make her give up on ever changing that. Maybe since she was just a little girl, it was unavoidable. So she'd begun to talk more to Mamoru than him, and Shione's words stuck with her longer than Obito's, and she decided that Itachi's attention was more trustworthy than his.

Despite these things, she really wished that Obito would one day realize that she was so much better than Rin and agree that he liked Akari much more. That he had just been kidding all along, and that she didn't deserve someone as annoying as him, even though he would try to make things better. Then she'd tell him everything was really alright, and they'd be a lot happier since she could have faith that he wouldn't ignore her in favor of Rin.

Of course, none of that ever happened. And if Obito wouldn't change, then it was up to Akari to change and make herself feel better. She tried to convince herself that she didn't love him at all, that it was just some silly feeling and that she was being such a little _girl_. It never made her feel better, though.

Neither Kushina nor Minato could pinpoint this problem exactly, but they could sense some different sort of dynamic whenever Akari and Obito were around each other. The kids didn't seem affected by it, though, as Akari was still as smiley and energetic as ever and Obito was just the same as he'd always been. Maybe they were just imagining things.

* * *

"So, how're things with your team, Iruka?" Mamoru began his usual cheerful banter. It took their minds off the rakes in their hands and the piles of mushy brown leaves that had been on the ground for half a year.

"Things are good. Junichi showed me a cool taijutsu last week. I'll have to show it to you, it's pretty awesome!" The umber-haired genin grinned as he thought about the time spent with his team. Junichi was pretty cool in his opinion, and since he'd taken the advanced course in Chou-sensei's class, he was ahead of both Iruka and Kasumi. Kasumi was a little weird, as she didn't really talk much and she didn't do much during missions, either. She made delicious tea after training, though!

And their team leader, Gina-sensei, was always trying to crack a joke. If Iruka had to describe her, he'd use words like bubbly, animated, and always over dramatic about their completion of missions and mastery of jutsus, no matter how easy they were.

For instance, she'd thrown a party whenever Kasumi halfway-mastered throwing shuriken. As in, cake, soda, five plates of food for everyone, and at least fifteen other students from their graduation class. Kasumi hadn't really appreciated it, as she'd practically hidden behind a tree until Gina-sensei forced her to eat some cake and say hi to a few people. Iruka had thought the celebration was cool, nonetheless.

"How's your team doing?" Mamoru shrugged, unable to say much about it. Itachi was always cool and collected, Akari was always fiery and explosive, and Shione-sensei was always either lazing about somewhere or giving them instructions to a new game to build trust. It was fun, but not what he'd expected from graduating from the Academy. He'd crammed for the final exam, but he really hadn't used any of the information he'd needed for the test.

"We're fine." Iruka unfolded a trash bag, shaking it open and holding it so that Mamoru could stuff it full of leaves.

"Come on, buddy, can't you tell me anything more than that?"

"Um, I think Itachi broke his record number of perfect hits when we were throwing kunai the other day. Nothing much happens, since we don't get any good missions." He raked a few old leaves into a pile in the middle of the yard, occasionally looking through the windows to see the flowers inside the shop, blooming in the spring time. "Hey, d'you think Akari'd wanna see the cherry blossoms this year?"

"I dunno. She'd probably just say no just because and go with that Uchiha kid." Iruka muttered, wiping his sweaty hands on his pants. Mamoru scrunched his nose and eyebrows into an odd grimace.

"_Itachi_?" He came to the name in disbelief. "I mean, _I_ don't have anything against the guy, but for whatever reason, Akari can't stand him. I don't think she'd go with him,"

"Not Itachi, the older one. He comes and picks her up sometimes, she was hanging all over him at New Year's, and I think he's on Kakashi's team, too. I wanna say his name's something that starts with a B, but I can't really remember." Iruka stated thoughtfully.

"Obito?" His friend procured, less than sure of himself. Akari only talked about him sometimes, so the name wasn't unheard of, but there was no way the guy was an Uchiha. If anything, he was a clumsy kid with average skills at best based on what she'd said. Uchiha were strong and clever, like Itachi. It was hard to believe that they were even remotely related.

"Yeah, I guess that's the one." Iruka shot a pointed glance at their food, perched on the first step on the Yamanaka porch. "Hey, do you think we should eat now? I'm starving."

"You go ahead, I'll finish raking and then you can get all the weeds out of the yard."

"Okay, that sounds good with me." Iruka conceded, slicking back the hair that had fallen out of his usual ponytail. He watched Mamoru while he ate his food, occasionally pointing out places that his adopted brother missed with the rake. "And you completely went around that corner over there,"

"Oi, losers!" A younger voice called from the street. There stood Akari, with a hefty-looking backpack on and a scowl on her face. "What're you two even doing here? This is why you told Shione-sensei that you couldn't make Sunday practices, Mamo?"

"Yeah, it's kind of a _paying job_! I don't see you doing anything productive today, Kari." She humphed, wiping her nose when the undignified snort caused some snot to dribble out. It wasn't like she could help it after all, she'd been plagued with a minor cold nearly all winter save for the times when it came and went.

"I'm taking bento to ojisan and his team, you idiot!" Iruka stifled his laughter as he watched her pull her sleeve away from her face with a trail of mucus on the dark fabric. "Hmph, I could probably do a better job at your job than you could, anyway!"

"Oh yeah? Well then prove it." Mamoru urged her on, secretly glad that she'd come to help him rake, no matter what her real motives were. She was so easy to manipulate if you went about it in the right way. "You can take Iruka's rake, since he's eating lunch now."

"Fine then, I'll do it! Anything that you do, I'm sure I could do it better." His warm brown eyes shone as he spotted the woman he was working for walk out, bringing two cups filled with what he could only assume was tea.

"I brought you boys some tea to warm you up. This weather's only getting colder as the year goes on, don't you think?" Mrs. Yamanaka murmured thoughtfully, watching one of the two young gentlemen take his break for lunch. She'd been paying these two to take care of her yard since she'd been rendered unable to hold a rake when the morning sickness had made her weak. Usually she got her husband Inoichi to do the yardwork, but he'd been working in ANBU for the previous year or so, and had neglected such duties.

Besides, these boys were so glad to have some work to do, even if it was just manual labor.

"I have some soba noodles inside if you'd like them, as well." She offered, watching the younger one, Mamoru, glance to the dark-haired one, Iruka, who only grinned and told her no thank you.

"We actually brought our own food today, Mrs. Yamanaka. Mom made us bento, but thanks anyway." Mamoru nodded, but didn't say anything. He was a shy boy like that, but a hard worker anyway, so she didn't mind if he acted a little rude.

"Alright, but if your hands get too cold, you can come to me and get some gloves if you need them." She blinked as she finally realized that there was a third child in her yard. "And who are you?"

"I'm Hatake Akari," she shifted on her feet, grimacing under the gaze of an adult. It was odd having to deal with someone older than Minato and Kushina, considering that most people in the village never got that old anyway. Also, she wondered how exactly she was supposed to talk to this lady, especially when she'd practically just shown up on her property. "M-ma'am."

"Put that rake down. Young ladies shouldn't do such awful labor. It'll damage your hands." She lightly scolded, setting the tea on the step beside the oldest boy. "You shouldn't let little girls do your work for you."

"She offered to do it, Mrs. Yamanaka. Why can't she do it if she wants to?" Mamoru fought back gently, his argument coming out as passive-aggressive once he averted his eyes and started raking again.

"I'm not having a girl do hard work outside, Ladies are delicate and should stay in the home where they belong. It's how things have always been, and how they should continue to be if you ask for my opinion." Akari wrinkled her nose, scrunching up her eyebrows in a look of despair.

"Well no one asked your opinion," she uttered, pursing her lips. "Ne, I don't care if my hands get messed up, anyways."

"Well you're not doing any work on my house! Run along and get back to whatever you were doing before. Go on, scram!" Akari scowled, visibly biting her lip to dam up any of her sharp retorts. Mrs. Yamanaka was prone to terrible mood swings since she was pregnant, and her reaction towards Akari was unnecessary. Still, Iruka and Mamoru kept their mouths shut so that they wouldn't set the lady off on them.

"Fine then. I've got places to be, ne. I don't want to help you, anyway." Akari spat at the woman, heaving the straps of her bag up higher on her shoulders. She promptly left without anything more than that, which left Mamoru perplexed at her relatively amicable behavior.

"You two can go home now, you've done enough for today." Mrs. Yamanaka sighed, rubbing her temple. Maybe she'd get some sleep and stop being such a nag, Iruka mused. Then again, that was probably why she was telling them to go in the first place.

"Yes ma'am, Mrs. Yamanaka. We'll be back next Sunday, if it's all right with you." She waved them off, opening and promptly shutting the gates behind them once they'd grabbed their things.

"Yeah, come back again next week. I should have some bushes that you can trim for me then." The lady turned back around and walked inside, leaving Mamoru a little confused while Iruka was still gracious that she hadn't made him do much work. The woman wasn't so much scary as she was bossy, but Iruka couldn't tell which was worse.

"She seemed in a bad mood when Akari tried to help. Wonder why,"

"Yeah. But she's got all these weird things going on since she's gonna have a baby, so I wouldn't worry about it. And Akari didn't look hurt at all. She even left on her own." Mamoru nodded, even more perplexed than before at Iruka's point.

"That's not like her, though. Maybe she wasn't feeling good today?" Iruka shrugged.

"Could be. Anyway, mom's gonna be so happy to see us home early. Maybe we can get some ramen out of it!" Mamoru nodded energetically, having all but forgotten his previous worries.

"Okay! Let's get home, then."

* * *

Akari was fuming silently all the way to the training fields. She knew which one Minato's team would be at instinctually. Her feet carried her there without much thought about the directions and the twists and turns that she took. The bento boxes had been carrying cold food, which was good since Akari usually got side-tracked along the way in her deliveries. Kushina knew this, apparently, and packed accordingly for Sundays such as these.

"Good Obito, but try not to waste so much chakra. Kakashi, let's see the technique you've been working on." She heard Minato calmly critique and offer criticism to his students. Akari sprinted forward with a smile adorning her face, but as she pranced into the training field, something tugged at her ankle.

She fell and hit the ground. On her face. _Right in front of not only Kakashi, Minato, and Rin, but also Obito._

"Akari?" The brunet questioned, having to stifle his laughing. Laughing at her. It was mortifying for Akari to push herself back up, cheeks red and lower lip trembling. She sat on her knees, holding out the bag filled with mixed up bento boxes. Her eyes darted from the ground to a few trees nearby.

"Food." Came her response. Minato grabbed the bento from her, asking if she was alright and throwing a disapproving look at the snickering Obito. Kakashi was at her side, openly glaring at his teammate. As the last member and only other girl there, Rin wondered what she could do to help. Akari never really seemed to like her much anyway, and so sometimes it showed in the way they interacted with one another. Really, Rin tried to be kind. It was just that sometimes it came out wrong.

"Stand up, Akari. Did you hurt yourself?" Minato insisted, checking her arms and wrists. She searched for anything more than minor cuts on her elbows from the undergrowth, but found nothing. Until she stood up and came tumbling back down, that is. Rin frowned, pushing herself forward to put her mediocre medical knowledge to the test.

"I've got this, Minato-sensei. Leave it to me!" Her broad smile took over her face, and she grabbed her medical kit before shooing the other guys away. "Now, what's wrong?"

"My foot hurts." Akari huffed embarrassedly. Rin poked at the side of her foot, looking for any reaction from the younger girl. Nothing but a hot blush covered her face until Rin pressed on her ankle.

Akari seethed at the pain, pouting when Rin smiled apologetically.

"Sorry about that. You said your foot hurt, so I didn't think that you really meant your ankle." The chunin examined the area around the hurt spot. It was swelling up quickly, but there wasn't much bruising. "It's probably just a sprain. I'll grab you some ice for it, so just sit tight."

Akari nodded solemnly, looking over to spot the roguish object that had caused her to fall. Her eyes scanned the area, but found no trip wires or traps of any sort. Which meant that she had probably just tripped over a tree root or some plant. The realization only made her feel more abashed.

Rin was back in an instant, a small towel filled with ice making crackling noises as the ice began to crack from the sudden temperature change. The bag was placed on Akari's right ankle, with her hissing at the pressure on such a tender area. Though, at the very least, the chill dulled the pain. Rin wrapped the towel around Akari's ankle and charily tied it so that it would catch the moisture from the condensation and quickly melting ice.

"You should try to be more careful, Akari-chan. You could get yourself hurt a lot worse if you don't watch where you're going." Rin timidly chided, "And who knows what could happen. You still haven't gone on your first mission outside of the village yet, have you?"

"No." The inky-haired genin answered brusquely, biting her bottom lip while she waited for Rin to speak again.

"Well, when you do go out there, you should know how to take care of basic wounds. Some things you can't just stick a bandage over, you know? It could get infected, or cause damage inside your body, or even make broken bones." Her chunin attendant inspected her other foot, making sure that none of the bones were cracked or otherwise impaired by moving her toes and pressing on certain areas.

When her examination of the younger girl's foot was over, she moved to clean and then coat Akari's bloodied knees with a disinfectant salve. The gobs of the balm were easily malleable, and Rin forgot to be careful. She bit into her lip to avoid voicing her pain while her knees were being cleaned off and then brushed over with the ivory-colored cream.

"Akari, would you say that we're friends?" Rin murmured, sitting beside the child as she wiped the disinfectant off on her pants and formed the hand signs to help heal the little girl's ankle faster. Her silvery-blue eyes stared at Rin's chakra-coated hands on her knees as she shrugged noncommittally.

"I dunno, maybe." The chunin with painted cheeks smiled nonetheless. She wrapped her arms around the little girl to embrace her warmly.

"I think we could be great friends, if we both tried. Don't you think?"

Akari didn't feel like pointing out that no, she didn't think they could be friends. Rin was too different from her, with her girly clothes and medical skills. Maybe she was too much of a tomboy herself, always wanting to pick a fight just to prove that she would be a good shinobi if she could only have the chance to show it off in a real battle. They were polar opposites, if anything, and there was no way they'd ever be able to compromise to make a friendship. Rin was too nice, and Akari too mean. They'd never get along, and it was that simple in the little girl's mind.

"I dunno." Rin laughed a little, but was otherwise undeterred.

"Come on, Akari. I'm not that bad, am I? Don't you think we could ever be friends?" She raised an eyebrow in answer. Her sight was drawn to the two other chunin sparring under Minato's supervision.

"Are you asking because you like me, or you like my brother, ne?" Rin's cheeks, or whatever wasn't covered by the purple face paint, turned red at the accusation thrown at her. And it was said so bluntly, too!

"How did you know that I…" She trailed off, glimpsing her two fighting teammates as Kakashi threw a certain punch and ended the spar in his favor. Minato gave Obito a few words of advice, and the silver-haired chunin stared at his little sister for a moment or two as if to check up on how she was doing.

He didn't speak, which was very much like him. Even so, Rin could feel her heart whirring when she saw his dark eyes observing the two of them. She swiftly hid her blushing face by turning to peer at Akari under the guise that she needed to have her ice shifted. Her warm copper eyes turned back upwards when another spar began and she was set free from his captivating stare.

"Why can't I like both of you? I mean, obviously in different ways, but I think of both of you as my friends. Just because someone likes you differently than another person doesn't mean that they like you any less." Akari's mind turned to the heated argument with Obito, who now acknowledged that she knew about his feelings for Rin.

"_I don't like her more than you! I just like you two in different ways is all, Akari!"_

Did that mean that she could make him feel differently about her? If he liked her just as much as Rin, would that mean that he could someday pass up Rin for her? Would she even stand a chance when they'd grown up? Or maybe Obito would move away or like someone else and forget about Akari all the time. He was her first friend, and she was pretty much his as well. What would happen if they grew apart?

A twisting feeling overrode Akari's system, and she felt like throwing up. Obito made her feel like that sometimes, especially if she thought about him too much. It made her want to vanish, to stop feeling so weak and vulnerable. Whatever emotion it was, she couldn't want to experience it anymore. It went against the moral guides of a shinobi, and if she wanted to be the best then she'd have to start shaping up.

She wasn't a crybaby. And she wasn't weak, either. This churning in her stomach, the flitting of butterflies at play, would have to stop. Even if she really didn't want it to go away.

"I always thought you would make a great ninja. You're so young, yet you were able to graduate from the Academy in the top rankings. That's pretty remarkable; especially to someone like me, who was just placed in the middle of the class. You're also pretty honest about yourself and others, which I admire." Akari felt her face burn at the compliments that she received. Unlike her old sensei's, these sounded unfeigned and heartfelt.

"Why're you so nice to me?" She muttered, wishing that maybe the chunin would give her something to throw back at her and give her ill feelings some reasoning. Everything she thought that the brunette had done out of animosity or bitterness turned into something with nothing but goodwill if Akari thought about it long enough. There really wasn't much of a negative side to Rin, except for the fact that she held Obito's feelings. Not that it was really _her _fault that the boy blindly loved her, but that made no difference to Akari.

"I like you and I want to be your friend. That's why." Rin answered. It made the little girl smile, at least, when she thought of all the people that wanted to be her friend now. She was getting so much attention from Mamoru and Iruka—even though they hadn't helped her out with the Mrs. Yamanaka-lady; Itachi; her new sensei, Shione; and that girl that she sometimes saw staring at her on the street, Kasumi. It made her feel bubbly and jittery at the same time. Her friends were few, but they each mattered a lot to her.

"Okay then. Let's be friends, I guess."

"I think that's enough training for today. Great job as usual, Kakashi and Obito." Minato proudly commented, turning his eyes to survey the two sitting beside each other and previously watching the two boys spar. "Are you ladies okay?"

"Yes, Minato-sensei." Rin responded, causing Akari to giggle. _Giggle. _Akari had never giggled with Rin like a little girl before. It was just something that didn't happen. Kakashi's eyes widened a degree or two, a smile nearly melting his face. Not that anyone else could see it, thanks to his mask.

"We're fine, ne!" The genin exclaimed, stretching out her unused legs. After sitting for a few hours, the muscles became sore even if her ankle was feeling better. The ice had been removed a while ago, but there were still bandages woven around her wound to apply a certain amount of uncomfortable pressure to the wound. It wasn't that bad, really, and Akari had a reason to sit and watch her brother and Obito and eventually Rin train for missions.

Her stomach growled occasionally, as she'd missed her lunch at home. The others had split up a bit of their food to give her, but she'd insisted that she was fine when they offered her the bitter or sour or spicy food that Kushina packed. She'd really been looking forward to helping make sweet bean dango for lunch, but then remembered that Kushina had a temper if she got home late. Akari decided to wait for Minato and her brother to go back so that maybe Kushina wouldn't notice her.

"We're meeting in my office tomorrow, first thing." Minato decided, watching his students' varied reactions. "You're dismissed."

"Minato-sensei, I'd like to walk Akari home, if you don't mind. I want to see if she'll be okay putting pressure on her ankle since she twisted it." Rin politely commanded under the guise of a request. The Hokage's fingers twisted in his blond hair, tunneling through the strands on the back of his head as he tried to think of a viable reason for Akari to go with him.

He'd have to explain everything to Kushina while she'd be making food and waiting on her three others to get back. She'd be furious that Akari wasn't home, and he really didn't like trying to explain his case to her when she was like that. If anything, Minato would say that it was like talking to a brick wall when trying to speak to an angry Kushina. A brick wall that also occasionally threw pots and pans at him.

"I'll walk with you, then." The offer earned him a stern look from Rin.

"Sensei, Akari will need to take her time to walk back. Just go ahead forward and tell Kushina-san about what had happened and we'll be right behind you. We're going to talk, so you should just go on ahead." She smiled at the end, and scrunched her nose as her nagging facade faded away. Akari laughed, grabbing Rin's hand for support as she stood up.

"That was perfect!" She exclaimed, leading the two girls into peals of laughter. Minato smiled at them bemusedly, glad to see Akari happy and getting along with Rin for once. Obito and Kakashi only stared at the two girls–wide-eyed and surprised at their interaction.

"You think so? I don't think I'm so good at mimicking Kushina-san." Akari grinned as Obito and Kakashi packed their things, and Minato led them away with a brief farewell from each person.

"You're sure you can walk, Akari?" The child's braid, which had been so neat and tidy before, was uncurling around her ears and neck. A few cowlicks formed from certain areas where the hair stuck out prominently. Her right knee wobbled a little, but she maintained her balance by using Rin.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's go,"

As they passed through the forest (on an old and worn-down path this time), Akari and Rin only talked a few times. It was a bit odd for either of them to talk to the other, and it showed in their awkward conversations that typically had something to do with the color of the sky or their surroundings.

Akari remembered earlier, which hadn't passed her mind yet. The events at the Yamanaka house—her being turned away because she was a girl, her friends not standing up for her, and her trudging along afterwards—made her stomach do flips. Not the good kind, either.

It made her wonder why people had things against her, just because she was a girl. It wasn't like there was a reason why she couldn't go as far as becoming Hokage; she could hold any position that a boy could. But the more she thought about it, the more she wondered why there weren't many girls who had graduated from the Academy, and why there were even fewer girls that worked in the police or as anything other than teachers and shopkeepers and cleaners.

And then she remembered how Kaoru-sensei had acted towards girls. His disapproval was inked into his steely eyes whenever he found a girl succeeding in his class. Ayane was one of the best examples that Akari could think of—the girl was nothing short of a miracle for her unknown clan. She was a lot like Itachi, except her strengths were in taijutsu. Kaoru-sensei would make sure to give her the most difficult practice in front of the class, and then he would mock her movements when she was unsure of herself. He only spoke praises for the male students.

Sometimes he'd talk about how the students would someday have to take over the village and lead the average citizens when the current shinobi were all gone. He'd make sure that he didn't catch a girl's eye while sharing this premonition, as if he thought that the girls wouldn't be part of that future. Perfect from a girl was never enough, even while the boys flourished by doing the exact same things as the female students.

Itachi had said that it was just because he was old and that was how things used to be. It made her wonder why things had once been like that; when girls and boys had once sat down and decided that the girls should stay in homes instead of going with the boys to fight for their lives. None of it made sense to her.

"Hey Rin, what's so different about boys and girls, ne?" The chunin spluttered for a little bit, taken aback by the odd question.

"Well…boys look different from girls. They're two different bodies, so that's why."

"Yeah, but why are boys treated diff'rently from girls?" Rin shrugged, grabbing Akari's shoulder to help her keep her balance.

"That's how it'd always been before, I guess. Women had to make babies, and men had to go fight. I don't know why, but that's just how it is. It's not so bad being a girl, though." The younger girl shot her a skeptical look, and so she explained. "People don't expect you to show up to fight. That means that it'll be easier to beat an opponent since they'd think that since you're a girl you couldn't fight well. It's also good for shoving their beliefs right back into their faces when you beat them."

"Really?" Rin nodded, clicking her tongue against her teeth as she thought for a little.

"Yeah, like this one time, we were on a mission to grab a scroll. Kakashi and Obito got surrounded when we were trying to take it, so it was up to me to grab the scroll and create a distraction so that we could get back to the village safely. Since I was a girl, they let me go and told me to go back to the village. Instead of that, I found Minato-sensei and we took out the whole squad." Akari's lips moved without any noise, searching for words to explain her predicament.

"But I don't like when people don't think I'm good enough. I'm strong, just like Itachi and Mamoru, and I'm just as fast, and I can do anything they can. But nobody wants to give me a chance."

"Well, you have different strengths. I think your team is rather well-balanced as far as your skills go, though maybe a bit above any other genin squads. You have to also remember that you can't just expect people to treat you highly. You have to earn their respect by showing them that you can do just as good as anyone else. They'll eventually learn that you're both smart and a cute face." It made Akari smile at least, even if it only reached to her cheeks.

"But what if I'm not something special? What do I do if I can only get so far?" Rin smiled broadly, reassuringly ruffling the little girl's hair as they exited the forest. Akari squinted at the bright sunlight, gazing up at Rin as her light brown hair glowed like a solar eclipse that she'd read about before. Though she'd never seen one in person, she was sure that it would look like Rin's smiling face when the setting sun hit the back of her head.

"You can do it, Akari. I'm sure of it! You're gonna be someone that people remember because it'll be impossible for you to not stick out with your talent. You have some of the best throwing skills I've ever seen, and your genjutsu is amazing from what Kakashi's told me. It'd be difficult to keep you at home with your skill. I'm sure you'll find a good job higher up than I could ever get."

"I don't think so." The little girl passionately riposted. "People like you a lot better than me, Rin. And you're really great at medicine and stuff. A-and you're pretty, too, and I'm sure you'll be a great doctor or medic someday!"

Rin's mouth opened a little in surprise, though not enough for it to be so noticeable. She laughed bashfully. her cheeks aflame at such a wonderfully driven compliment from the little girl. It had been a while since she'd seen her youngest friend get so upset and heated for her sake.

"Y-yeah. Let's both do our bests, right Akari? I'll stand behind you all the way, and you'll do the same for me, won't you?"

"Definitely!" For a moment the little girl wavered, torn between her decisions. Was Rin really her friend, or were they going to go back to normal tomorrow? She hesitantly held out her unused hand, sticking out her pinky as she balled up the rest of her fingers. "Pinky promise,"

Rin connected their fingers, nodding brilliantly.

"Pinky promise."

* * *

**A/N: So whatcha think? I know some of you wanted Akari to tell Rin off for liking her big brother, so I tried to put a little bit of that in there. Also, next chapter is gonna include some training and the prelude to an important mission arc (sort of like the one in the beginning of Naruto, though not exactly). Stay tuned for the next update!**


	11. Carry On

**A/N: I'm so glad that I have people that enjoy reading this! You don't know how happy it makes me when I look in my emails and see the reviews, or favorites, or new followers for this story. Lol, I have a bit of a spazz attack (kind of like when you see your OTP professing their love for each other) when I see that people enjoy my writing. You guys make me smile so much!**

**As always, I'd like to thank you for reading. In addition to my regular unnamed readers, however, I'd also like to thank the following:**

**534667lc for reviewing (again! Also, I believe that I can do Akari x Itachi)**

**bakuya78 for favoriting and following**

**ty7769 for favoriting**

**True Guardian Angel for reviewing (again! And as for your review...hmmmmm!:)**

**Angel Hatake for following and favoriting**

**MadnessIsAMust for following**

**On with the show, now that gratitude has been given!**

* * *

A rustle of grass, a breath of early April, and a shiver in the trees made Akari feel edgy. She didn't mind warm months, preferring them to winter any day, but while she was on missions they made her feel jittery. The limb she was on was only high enough to conceal her from any oncoming enemies, but if she climbed any higher she couldn't have nearly as much visibility through the leaves. It was too quiet for her to rest easily. She was too sure that she would get caught if she let her guard down. Her left hand tautened to hold her balance on the branch, her right closed in tighter on her kunai's handle. She was missing the comforting feel of Kitsune-y in her hands, desperately needing to have something to hold onto to make her feel safer.

"Found you," the mocking voice whispered, placing a kunai to the back of her throat and making Akari lose her balance at the contact. Down she fell, through the two layers of boughs and down to the ground before being caught rather unceremoniously with her head inches from the ground by Mamoru. He grinned down at her.

"You're really terrible at this, Akari-chan. Even I could hide better than you, and I'm twice your size." She pouted, wriggling out of his arms and flipping over onto her feet in a crouch.

"You cheated, I saw you peek! And it's not my fault that I don't like playing hide-and-seek to anymore. This stuff is stupid, why can't we go out of the village and do actual missions?" Shione appeared from out of the forest, feeling her way around with her bō staff.

"I already told you that I put in a word with the Hokage. You live with the guy, why haven't you bugged him about it? He's got such a cute soft spot for you and his team, I'm sure if you asked him nicely he would listen." She stood in front of them, inhaling deeply to change her course of words. "In the meantime, we'll do with what we have. And so right now we're going to play either hide-and-seek or kunai tag."

"Can't you teach us some cool new jutsu? Or at least let us practice something we already know. You said that you'd teach us how to make strategies, so why haven't you told us anything about that?" Mamoru prodded. "I mean, what're we supposed to do if we get there and have no idea what we're doing? I mean, you told us we're supposed to be the elite squad months ago, but we're probably falling behind playing games all day."

"My apologies, sensei, but I agree with these two. How are we supposed to grow as shinobi if we aren't being faced with challenges greater than chasing each other around in a forest? It's been three months since we were assigned to you, and the most difficult mission we've been faced with was delivering supplies to and from the Hokage Tower. Forgive me, but I don't think that this is improving our skills."

"Yeah, I know how you guys feel, but if Yondaime-sama doesn't think that you're ready, then you're just not ready. They should really have an intermediary between the Hokage and those getting missions, however, I think the missions are a little…biased."

Akari couldn't help but agree, though she said nothing. On many occasions, she had wondered if Minato was withholding any good missions from their team. Already, she knew that Iruka had gone out of the village twice for week-long reconnaissance missions while she was stuck walking a pack of dogs from the Inuzuka clan's shelter. He seemed more like an overprotective mother than an easygoing uncle now, too, since he always seemed to want to walk her everywhere.

Maybe if she hadn't walked away in that crowded street on graduation day, he wouldn't be so clingy. And then there was also the heart attack both he and Kushina had when she came back home after the first day of group training. That, added with the fact that Kakashi was so against this, seemed to be enough to make Minato keep a close eye on her.

"Would you bring that up in the next jonin meeting, then? We're not able to learn much more by simply assisting the elderly and disabled in our own village. I believe it would be strategic to involve us in at least a few higher-ranked missions to improve not only our abilities, but also our morale. We haven't had much experience as a team during a mission focused around combat, and even during the missions that we do take we don't work as a team very well."

"I think we work great together—you guys are like the family I never had!" Mamoru grinned and wrapped his arms around the two younger genin. Both Akari and Itachi winced at the physical contact, but the corners of their lips twitched upwards nonetheless. Shione pursed her lips, folding her arms into her jonin vest. She raised an eye at the scene, tapping her toes in faux impatience.

"Yeah, well might I remind you three of the last three times we went out to help deliver kunai to the Academy? Akari, you started another fight with a kid and Mamoru, you just watched while Itachi carried on the mission. You three might be civil with one another on certain days, but that doesn't mean that you're anywhere near good enough to be considered the elite squad that the Hokage wants you to be. Have you three forgotten about the five fights that I had to break up during the first three weeks? Sure it's petered out a little, but you're still pretty crummy together alone."

"But that was months ago, Shione-sensei, and we've almost gotten over getting mad at each other for everything. Besides, since when did you ever stop our fights? Mostly you just watched and let one of us mediate."

"No, I mostly let you solve your own problems. I'm not about to break a sweat worrying about you three if you can't even keep yourselves out of each others' hair and off each others' nerves." Shione plopped onto the ground, signing of either exhaustion (which made no sense, as she hadn't done anything other than watch and follow the three genin every now and then) or frustration. Her three pupils sat before her, waiting for something to happen.

"Alrighty then, I suppose that if there's nothing else to do, I'll start preparing you for the time when Akari can actually break through and help us out here with our little situation with the Hokage. First off, what's everyone's favorite animal?"

"Why's that important?" Akari, the youngest and most questioning of the three, asked. Shione rolled her eyes behind her tinted glasses, pushing them back up her nose and inhaling a few curses aimed at the girl,

"Because I said so, and last time I checked, I was the jonin leader here. But you know what, I guess it really doesn't matter. We'll try it without forming any contracts just to see what'll happen. So here are the seals you'll use, in order—i, inu, tori, saru, hitsuji—and then you bite your thumb to draw blood. Got it? You should get an animal of sorts, like so," Shione-sensei performed the hand seals hastily, biting her thumb and pressing her palm into the ground. An intricate black design formed around her hand before a poof signified that the jutsu was finished.

"Hey, King Ne. My apologies for taking you from your home, I do hope that I didn't interrupt anything?" As the smoke cleared, Akari and her teammates were shocked to find a giant rat standing in the middle of the circle with a regal-looking staff that was carved into a spear and dipped in some sort of metal that had been painted deep red-violet.

"Shione-san, I must admit that you called at an odd time. My kindred and I are currently talking of this shinobi war and how it affects our numbers. However, I am always eager to carry out whatever tasks my mistress requires of me." The voice coming from the rat's bristled mouth was deep and masculine. His disgruntling red eyes were closed as he bowed before their sensei. He was as tall as the mid-aged oak trees surrounding them, perhaps standing at a height of 3 meters. Akari was deeply intimidated by his massive size, but hid her fear and glanced up at the rat with the sort of strong look she had seen on her big brother and father before they left for difficult business-missions.

Mamoru stood in awe of the giant animal, wondering how it could be so graceful while being at least three times his size. He could never pull of such an elegant bow without stumbling or losing his balance. Either way, the rat definitely looked cool with such an awesome weapon in his claws.

The last member of the team looked up in polite regard, avoiding King Ne's eyes as a sign of humble respect. Itachi began to think about what his summoning animal would be as Shione said a brief farewell to hers.

"Summoning jutsu, it's very useful in battles where you'd need backup. It also requires that you use a lot of chakra if you want a useful summon. If you don't use up enough chakra, you won't be able to perform the jutsu or you could just summon something that can't help you out enough—i.e. a baby animal or some other sort of useless form. Also remember that you can use too much chakra with this, as with every jutsu, so you should use it sparingly and only as a final option so that you don't kill yourselves.

"You'll also need to know this jutsu if and when you're interviewed for Anbu. So go ahead and try it; I don't expect perfection from you, but I want progress and maybe a signed contract with an animal by nightfall or before someone picks you up. You'll get to bond with the animal over night, but we'll release the seal tomorrow when you show up for training." Her students nodded, each forming the hand seals that she had shown them, biting their thumbs until they drew blood, and pressing their palms into the ground.

Shione sat down cross-legged in front of them, watching them fail in their summonings time after time again. She could see their chakra paths working to create something out of what they were being given. Normally this required a contract already formed, but it could be done without any form of seal previously made. There was already a certain chakra nature and energy type that each possessed, which she could easily read to determine where each could wind up later. Her kekkei genkai made it easier to tell what skills each of her pupils should learn to further their innate talents.

Time passed with the breeze that blew across the forest and dusted the green leaves with a new layer of age. The sun began to set when Itachi finally figured out how to perform the jutsu properly and disappeared in a plume of smoke.

"Well, I guess we'll see what Itachi comes up with when he gets back shortly." Shione sounded resigned, yawning lackadaisically.

A poof came from the spot that their teammate had stood in before disappearing. Covered in his hand was a tiny animal that his teammates rushed to see. The thing was entirely made of frazzled black feathers that stuck up everywhere and eyes that looked too big for its face. It brushed itself against Itachi's thumb, lifting its tiny wings before settling against the warmth of the boy's hand.

"What is it?" Mamoru wondered, poking it gently and watching it stumble about on its awkward two legs. It stuck out its beak, biting Mamoru's finger with it and refusing to let go even when the older boy lifted the creature from Itachi's cupped hands. He shook his hand a little to get it to drop haphazardly into Itachi's gentle hold. The younger boy held the bird close to his chest to protect it from anymore prodding, brushing his finger to fix the upright feathers on the bird's head.

"It's ugly." Akari wrinkled her nose at it, stepping closer to her teammate and feeling the fluffy black feathers on the being. "And it's just a baby, what're you gonna do with that?"

"It'll grow up eventually, and then I can use it. Besides, I think it's sorta endearing." The little bird chirped in his hands,

"Thank you, sir!" Akari squealed, snatching her hand away from the bird upon hearing it speak.

"It talked! Shione-sensei, it talked!"

"Yes, thank you for pointing out the obvious my dearest little genin. All summoning animals can talk, including anything you can summon on your own. You didn't actually think that only my rats could talk, did you?" She felt stupid for pointing it out now, and flushed red with embarrassment. Akari poked her finger at the bird.

"So if you can talk, why didn't you talk before? What are you, anyways?" The bird harrumphed, turned to Itachi, and began to speak to him.

"I don't like her, she's mean. Could you please tell her to leave me alone, sir?" Akari puffed out her cheeks, frowning with a glower to crack ice on her face.

"Stupid bird. I bet my summoning'll be better than your stupid thing, 'tachi! In fact, I bet I can bring back the biggest animal that I find and it'll eat that ugly little bird." Itachi narrowed his eyes, sitting and letting the bird rest in the extra cloth of his shirt.

"It's a crow. And if you hurt her, I'm not going to help you figure out how to do the jutsu and so you'll have to figure it out on your own while Mamoru and I bond with our animals." She crossed her arms and went back to her spot to figure out how to perform the same jutsu that her teammate had.

Itachi sat at the end beside Mamoru, and held his little ugly crow in his cupped hands. The thing chirped every now and then, biting on his fingers if the boy didn't pay the bird enough attention. Soon enough, Mamoru was whisked away as well, leaving Akari flustered and irate at being the last one to get the jutsu correct.

Shione stretched out her legs, yawning when Mamoru returned quicker than Itachi. Akari recognized the animal that her oldest teammate had crawling up his arm, leaving a slimy trail of ooze all the way up his shoulder. Mamoru chuckled at the compact green slug, making a face when it had slithered all the way to the top of his shoulder, where it sat quietly waiting for instructions.

Akari groaned, flopping onto her back in agony and mortification at having been the last to still not have her summoning animal.

"So what'd you get, Mamo?" Shione asked dutifully.

"A slug." Their sensei nodded, looking to Akari expectantly.

"You might want to ask your teammates for help if you need it, Akari. It's fine if you do, but don't take a week to get this right because you're so stubborn."

"I can do it!" She shouted, face flaring in her wrath. Her blood boiled, hands clenched, eyebrows furrowed, and lips curled into a volatile snarl. Shione shrugged, lightly tapping the youngest girl's head with her bō staff.

"Okay, I'll trust you. But we're moving on to picking out personalized weapons tomorrow, so figure it out quickly or else you're just not gonna learn how to do it."

"We're gonna pick out weapons tomorrow?" Mamoru chimed, perking up at the sound of something interesting. Akari had picked up at his interest, wondering why he only sounded that way when something new was involved. She fiddled with Rin's gloves, mentally asserting to herself that she was alright accepting hand-me-downs from other people. The worn t-shirt from Kakashi seemed heavy on her shoulders, and her wadded up pants began to feel scratchy and too loose to belong to her.

"Did I stutter?" Shione quipped snarkily. She regained her composure with a sigh, pointing her head up so that if she could see, she'd be looking at the sky. "However, to get the weapons, we'll have to pick out where each of you will be and what kind of weapon would be the best for your position. So Itachi-san, can you tell me what the clouds look like today?"

Itachi inspected her face curiously, trying to spot any hint that she was trying to joke with him. She seemed completely serious, however, and it made him mentally question her sanity.

"I'm sorry, but may I ask why?"

"You can, but I won't answer. Mamoru, what do the clouds look like today?" Mamoru blinked before shrugging and answering half-heartedly.

"They're...white, I guess?" Shione groaned at the answer she hadn't wanted, and turned to interrupt Akari's brooding.

"What do the clouds look like today, Akari?" Akari scanned the sky, pursing her lips and wrinkling her brow before answering. She thought about what one of her books might have said about the clouds, using that to make her observations as detailed as she could for her own entertainment.

"There's one right above us, and you know how people say they look like cotton balls? They really don't, I think they look more like a river of paint, because you can sorta see the sun through them and it casts shadows on the rest of the cloud. They're not really white, either, they're sorta grey mixed with lots of red and orange because it's sunset, but they're only in little splotches across the sky, like if someone flung some rocks up there and they just got stuck."

She looked back at Shione, scanning her face to pick out any signs of approval or disapproval, but instead her sensei reached into the kunai pouch sitting on her thigh. In the blink of an eye, the kunai were thrown at the two boys on the team.

Akari stood and jumped back out of practice, startled enough to hear her heart pounding in her ears. Mamoru sat in his spot, having caught the kunai before it had hit his arm and knocked the slug off his shoulder. Itachi had shielded his summoned crow, deflecting the kunai and leaving it to stick itself into a nearby tree. Shione grinned and clapped her hands, standing and stretching her legs as she explained herself.

"Just as I expected." But she cut it off there, leaving Akari to become flustered at her panic.

"What did you expect?" The little girl fumed, enraged at the whole scene. "I'm still trying to do this stupid summoning jutsu, and then you start throwing knives at us! What the hell?!"

"Calm down, Akari, I was trying to see where to put you guys. It was best to not tell you what I was doing so that I could see what you were naturally good at, not what you wanted to be good at. For example, you want to be on the front lines, no doubt. But you're not made for that—it's not just because you're a little girl, it's because you startle too easily and you're not level-headed enough. You're excellent at describing things for me to visualize the battlefield, and because of that you're going to be our lookout and scout for field missions.

"Itachi, you are good with reasoning and logic, and you are also a quick-thinker. You had to know the reasoning behind my question, meaning that blindly following commands is not one of your strong points. You derailed the path of my kunai by using your own force, but your amount of chakra is limited compared to the rest of us. You'll be the main strategist and frontal force, at least for a time.

"Lastly, Mamoru will be backup and brute force. He has the most chakra out of the three of you, and is the strongest physically. Not only was he able to protect the slug on his shoulder, but also himself by catching the kunai and not backing down. It takes either a great deal of courage or an equal amount of stupidity to do what you did, but it seems to work for you either way.

"Based upon this, I suppose that the best course of action for missions when we will have to face enemies in battle would go as follows:

"Akari would be sent out first to gather data on the area and enemies. I could see a future of espionage in the Anbu for you if you continue this, so don't complain about how you don't get to fight. It'll come later.

"Next, Itachi and Mamoru would be sent out in a pair, with Itachi in the lead and Mamoru following closely behind, but under cover. Akari would watch from a safer place to provide extra eyes on the situation and give an extra hand only if necessary.

"Itachi, you'd get tired after a few minutes, so once you get a feel for the way your enemy fights, you'd step back and let Mamoru take over. by this time, you and Akari could confer about the best action while Mamoru keeps the enemy occupied and unable to formulate a plan. After that, it'll be up to the situation and your preference for the battle. It'll be a tag-team method to keep your enemy's hands tied in a whirlwind of attacks and switching. Any questions?" Mamoru slowly raised his hand. "Yes?"

"So what weapons would I use?" Shione shook her head.

"That's for tomorrow, today we need to let Akari figure out how to summon before it gets dark enough for your parents and guardians to come grab you for dinner."

"Yeah, assholes, I need to get this done!"

"That was unnecessary."

"Yeah, Akari!"

"Mamoru."

"Oh, sorry sensei."

Akari bit her thumb, letting the blood trickle down to her palm before pressing her hand into the ground after performing the hand seals and funneling her chakra out into the jutsu. It seemed that this would be her lucky break, as she was gone in a hasty and mind boggling flash. Her vision was blurred as she tried to take in her vague surroundings. Water seemed to drip from somewhere, but it was one of the few things that Akari could recognize. There was also something that made her nose cringe, but for the most part her senses were rendered useless.

"Oh? Would you look at this, hime. A little human girl," Akari swore that there was a bit of a snarl at the end of the word, and felt something dripping down onto her cheeks.

"Indeed. Tell us, tell us human girl, what are you doing in our home? You seem...tense. Relax here for a while, just for dinner, no?" She blinked, looking up at the blurry figures before her face. Chalky grey eyes and a whiskered snout that dripped drool onto her cheek made her wince, but she only moved out from under the hungry eyes of the animal. Akari wiped off her chubby cheeks with the back of her long sleeve, wincing at the rank smell of rotting flesh that hit her nose.

"I have to get back before dinner, but I need to...sign a contract or something. I need a really impressive summoning animal so that I can show up those two jackasses on my team!" The fox in front of her, the first to speak in a masculine tone, seemed to grin mischievously before nudging his female companion. The female was completely white, with seven tails that swung around out of synch.

"Hear that, princess? The kit wants a summoning."

"We're wasting time with her. There's not enough meat on her to feed even the kits, much less one of us. Send her back, let her get ripe and juicy. Haven't the others returned from the hunt?" Idle chatter was brought around the two foxes as Akari's eyes slowly focused in on the scene.

It wasn't until she blinked a few times that she realized that those foxes were at least as tall as Shione-sensei's summoning rat, if not greater. And they were on their four enormous paws, she couldn't imagine how large they'd be standing on their hind legs! And the cave that she was being kept in was closed off and rather empty, save for a few wildlife carcasses scattered about in corners of the room. Akari shivered when she wondered what they had meant about her getting ripe and juicy.

"We could send one of the younger kits with her, as a hunt of their own. Perhaps they could perform some thievery or something of the sort?" The one addressed as hime rested on her stomach, curling her tail around herself before answering the other large fox. Akari had begun to notice a change in their dialects and pattern of speech: the one who sounded like a male was brutally to the point and his words sounded common, however the one masquerading as Princess was regal in her words and tone. She certainly did sound like royalty, even if she was a fox.

"Send the Wretched One with her, and let us hope that she will not fail us this time. Such a hunt would provide little profit for us, whether we are successful or not, so I see no point in wasting the young when we could get our hands freed of her."

"Wait a minute, I don't wanna go back with some stupid fox that not even you guys can stand! I want a warrior or a fighter, or something that can actually help me out, not something that'll keep me behind!" The princess snapped at Akari, showing her gleaming white teeth that seemed to be the size of her head.

"You will accept our offering to you, ungrateful peasant, or you will have no summoning! Get her out of my sight as soon as the Wretched One is found; I have no sympathy for such an arrogant young kit."

"Yes, my princess. I'll find her immediately. Come with me, young kit." Akari figured that he was talking to her when he turned to glance back at her. She didn't trust the gleam in his coal black eyes, or the way his tongue lolled out of his mouth like a dog waiting for a treat. There was a faint voice in the back of her head telling her that following him was a bad idea, but that staying with the angry princess would be even worse.

"Okay then." And so she followed after him, running to catch up to his long strides with such big limbs. When she had deemed that they were a safe enough distance away, Akari stood up taller to see if she could become anything more than an ant in the fox's eyes. She sized him up appropriately, wondering how a fox could grow that big. "Were you really going to eat me?"

"No, you don't have enough meat on you. It would be a wasted effort, and we usually feast on other tastier animals this season. Humans are disgustingly bitter after winters, while animals such as rabbits are out feasting on new crops and taste much sweeter." Akari nodded, not quite understanding, but hoping she looked confident enough to pass by.

"So what is this place anyway?"

"It's not necessary for me to tell you anything of this place."

"Why not?!" She wailed, crossing her arms and pouting as she continued to walk with the giant fox.

"You're too young to understand secrets. If we told you, your people would come to flush us out as the shinobi have always done. Humans see us as pests, and nothing more. They hunt my kind, deplete our numbers, and keep us from thriving. If it weren't for my princess's orders to send the Wretched One with you, I surely would have killed you simply to spite your kind." Akari blinked, not quite taking the giant fox seriously. After all, what child could understand the threat of death? Children are not nearly as invincible as they believe themselves to be, after all.

"Oh. What does flushing you out mean?"

"We have no permanent home because of you. Before humans were settled and formed villages, I was one of the greatest warriors of my tribe. We would eat as much food as we could manage, and we prospered for many generations on the wild animals. But as humans began to relocate into our homes, we were thrown out like a hollowed-out carcass and many of us were killed. Us foxes are constantly running in fear from humans, as part of our treaty with the great Sage, but our ruler is imprisoned. The princess grows weaker, and we have no one to take over in lead when she passes on. We will all die at the hands of humans."

"Maybe if you wouldn't threaten to eat us, we wouldn't see you as a threat and kill you off. I mean, if you expect us to help you out, then you've gotta help us out and be nice, too. That's how alliances work, ne?" The fox snarled, flinging drool onto the little girl's face.

"You're naive and know nothing. Humans're all the same—backstabbing and untrustworthy. How could we know that you wouldn't use us and cast us aside? It's in your nature to be cunningly traitorous, even when we've been nothing but loyal. It's been the same story since the dawn of time, with us being beaten or killed while you revel in our glory and prosperity. We have learned your ways by now." Akari frowned, still not quite understanding what he was going on about.

But it hit her when she remembered Kushina chastising her about how she treated other people. "They won't want to be your friends…" Was that what the fox was talking about? If it was, then didn't he know that if you treated other people nicely, they'd return the favor? Surely the world couldn't be so cold that not even a debt of kindness could be returned.

"Ne, my aunt tells me to be nice to people so that they'll be nice to me. Maybe if you just tried to help out a little in wars and stuff, we wouldn't hurt you so much. I'm just a little girl right now, but one day I'm gonna grow up, so I can make sure that you don't have to worry about losing your home ever again if you're nice to me. I could protect you from humans if we formed a contract, ne."

The silvery-grey fox made no comment, no noises, nothing to let her know that he had even heard her. His ears twitched once they neared a crevice in the long tunnels of the cave. A long tongue flicked across his maw, and he pushed Akari into the crack with his front paw. She could hear his six tails swishing behind him.

"The Wretched One is inside. Form a contract with her, if you'd like, but don't return here unless you want to become food. Understood?"

"E-er, yeah, I guess. Can I get your name, at least?" His ears twitched, and he sat back in amusement.

"Suiko of the North. You?" She watched his eyes flicker with that same irrepressible mischief that she had seen before. He was toying with her, but it didn't seem to be out of malicious intent.

"Hatake Akari. People mostly just call me Akari. Ne, I guess it's nice to meet you, Suiko of the North."

"The pleasure has been all mine. I do hope that you will keep this promise, Akari. It would be a shame for me to eat such an amusing little girl." She smiled unsurely, but walked further into the wide crevice to see that there was a room attached to it. Akari listened to the swishing tails just a few feet behind her, hearing them slowly fade into the sound of water dripping from the ceiling.

The entrance wasn't tightly enclosed, but it still made her feel claustrophobic as she slowly moved through the hole in the wall. She couldn't see the end of the hallway, or anything around her. Images of insects and rats scurrying across the floor made her shudder, but it wasn't enough to make her turn back. She had to find this so-called Wretched One and form a contract before nightfall. Which made her wonder what time it really was, as she really had no way to tell. The sun didn't shine in the cave she was currently navigating through.

Akari tripped over an unexpected pebble in the way, catching herself with her hands and knees. She pushed herself up and dusted her pants off, feeling around for a wall to guide her the rest of the way.

"Who is it?" A clear voice echoed along the walls. There was a tremor in the back of Akari's mind, a shiver that ran down her spine, and her leg muscles almost gave out from her frightened state. That voice sounded like Kushina when she got mad at her for not eating her dinner, a chastisement that she could expect from her mother. Not a fox, of all things.

"I-I'm Hatake Akari. They told me to sign a contract to make you my summoning animal, but I'm not sure how this works, ne." She took a step forward, thrusting her hand out at the lack of a wall for her to grab. The room burst into light, temporarily blinding the little girl as she rubbed her eyes to get rid of the white spots that overtook her vision. Akari gained a headache from the experience, but her sight was quickly repaired and let her look around.

The medium crevice stood directly behind her, overwhelmingly tall but just a few feet wide. The dark brown and red rocks glistened with moisture from the ceiling, and Akari noted that there were seven torches around the room, each one lit with bright red flames. A fox, the vixen she must've heard earlier, lay on the ground. Akari counted five tails that branched off of the flawless white coat of the fox. This fox was perhaps the size of a cow, which made Akari feel a little less intimidated. At least she wasn't the size of those other foxes, that towered over her and any of the tallest trees she had ever seen.

"Oh? A contract? Didn't you sign with the princess? I didn't think it would matter who you signed with, just as long as you signed with one of us, you could summon any of us at any time. You wouldn't even need a contract, really, all you'd need was a shrine and the right ritual. But no matter, I take it you're a shinobi? I suppose that would mean that you'd want to summon one of us for battle. It would be difficult to visit a shrine in the midst of such fighting. Very well then," the fox reached around herself to grab something from a bag curled under her back paw,, fishing it out with her clawed paws. When she pulled it around to show Akari, something plopped to the ground in front of her. Upon a closer inspection, she realized that it was a scroll with only a few names written on it in brownish-red ink. "You will need to sign this."

"Okay, where's my ink?" The white fox shook her head from side to side, ears resting back to touch her neck.

"You write in your blood as a seal to summon us. It's part of the deal." Akari groaned, but bit her thumb and rubbed the blood on her forefinger. She sloppily traced the characters of her name out, not having much practice doing so, and especially never having done it with her own blood. Her thumb aches from constantly providing her with blood. Akari was sure that she might die from blood loss if this continued. Or at least she'd have to stop biting her hands. Maybe she could get some needles to draw the blood instead of using her teeth. It would probably hurt a lot less, anyway.

**はたけあかり**

"There. Can you tell me your name since you have mine?" The fox stretched out languidly, yawning abruptly while blinking.

"Call me Kuzunoha. I believe some fresh air is in order, so I'll go back with you." Akari nodded frantically, grinning when she thought of what Itachi and Mamoru would think if she brought back a full-size, adult fox to show them up. It made her insides feel warm and mushy when she thought of the surprise not only on their faces, but also their attitude.

"Alright. Now all I have to do is use the reverse of the seal to pop us back into the spot where you stood before here. Grab onto my neck." The little girl did so, brushing a strand of black hair behind her ear as she closed her eyes and waited for the effects of the travel to hit her. The coat of the fox was plush, but there was only a thin layer to cover her, which made Akari sad that she couldn't use the animal as a pillow for the ride.

Akari and the fox appeared with a poof of smoke, and the little girl glanced around the clearing to scan the three faces of her teammates. Shione was unimpressed (probably because she couldn't see the awesomely huge fox that Akari had brought with her), however the two boys reflected the emotion she had wanted to see so badly. Their complete and utter shock (albeit for only a second in Itachi's eyes) made her smirk with the proudness that only a self-righteous child could have.

"Told ya I could do it! Pay up!" Mamoru scoffed, folding his arms over his chest.

"I never bargained anything in this. Is it even real, or is it just a genjutsu?" Shione wrinkled her eyebrows, frowning at Mamoru.

"You guys shouldn't know genjutsu to cast illusions yet. What're you talking about, Mamoru?" Itachi took it upon himself to explain as Mamoru began to prod the deterred fox.

"Akari-san scored the highest in the school in the genjutsu category. Although her taijutsu and ninjutsu skills leave much to be desired, she is certainly excellent in casting illusions." Their sensei nodded, her short auburn hair flicking around her head as she did so.

"How come none of you decided to tell me that? I always figured that since your chakra was routed around your hands, you'd be a good taijutsuist, but if your strengths are in genjutsu then I'm glad you'll be the scout. Even if they find you, you can use certain genjutsu tactics to make sure that you can get away quickly." The large fox sat down, flicking Mamoru aside as she did so.

"Hatake-san is definitely a genjutsu master if she could summon me. Kitsune are generally exceptional at creating illusions. If you look close enough, you can also see that the chakra is routed more to her brain than her hands. Also, taijutsu fighters typically have chakra in their fingertips, no? Akari is lacking both size and physical capabilities for such a thing, and I doubt she could ever grow into a form that would befit a warrior in such a way."

"Hey!" An outraged cry tore from the little girl's throat. Mamoru butted in before any fights could occur, formulating a question to ease tension.

"Sensei, what are you talking about chakra routes? I thought that they were the same in all people,"

"There are certain variations that can determine which categories or fighting skills a shinobi can learn. Since every human is different, the minor routings of chakra are different as well. Of course, the major chakra vessels are still intact—the route from the brain to the stomach to the heart is in every person. However, certain traits like a genjutsu-based fighter or a kekkei genkai in a clan would cause certain variations to make their specific trait easier or more efficient. Does that cover it, Shione-sensei?" Itachi brushed the top of his now-cowering crow, staring at the fox that Akari had summoned.

"Almost. Most of the time, shinobi have a heart-based chakra structure, which means that most of the chakra goes to their heart because that's where ninjutsu comes from. Taijutsuists have chakra that runs to their fingertips and genjutsu users have a mind-based chakra system. Kekkei genkai are less specific because it's a generalization of many clans' traits. For instance, Itachi's clan has the sharingan. As a result, his family has a large amount of chakra located near and in their eyes.

"Which brings up the question of what kekkei genkai Akari has. Typically, genjutsuists don't have that much chakra flowing through their hands, and you're not just that well-rounded either. Do you remember your parents telling you anything about an inherited trait?" Akari blinked, thinking if her father or Kakashi had told her anything about that. But then again, it wasn't as if it had been brought up a lot. Minato-ji had told her she had only been able to speak in short sentences for about a year before the incident, and Kakashi didn't talk much to her about their family after the incident.

"No, I don't think so." Kuzunoha nudged Akari's hands, flicking her ears. The little girl frowned.

"Your dad was pretty well known, wasn't he, Akari?" Mamoru asked, glancing up at her from the current area that he was petting on her fox. "I think that if he had a kekkei genkai, someone would've been talking about it."

"But what about your mother?" Itachi asked patiently, biting his tongue when Akari turned downcast.

"I dunno 'bout my mom. She died when I was born." Shione took it upon herself to change their current mood by smiling and standing up straight and tall.

"Well! Today was eventful, wasn't it? Let's meet up somewhere tomorrow for lunch, I won't make you come out early on a Saturday. Actually, you should just meet me at the Academy building and we'll pick out a place to go eat then. What're your favorite foods, by the way?"

"Vegetable tempura, please!" Mamoru responded instantly. Akari pursed her lips at the sound of vegetables, frowning at his decisions.

"Rice balls." Itachi acknowledged her for a brief moment before directing his attention back on his crow.

"What kind of rice balls?"

"Kelp."

"Okay, and Akari?"

"Candy!"

"You can't have candy for lunch, Akari. I know for a fact that Kushina-san would strangle me if I only fed you junk. Besides, it's not food that you should eat before training anyway because it'll make you throw up."

"I promise I won't!"

"Will you eat fruit?"

"But I want candy!"

"Well you're not getting candy. Will you eat botchan dango?"

"No. I want candy!"

"If you don't tell me something other than candy that you'll eat, you'll have to be responsible for your own lunch tomorrow."

"Shione-sensei, I saw her bring some leftover motoyaki to school once!"

"But I don't like that, I want candy!"

"You ate all of it, and you need something other than candy to eat or else you're gonna get cavities!"

"But I like candy!"

"Sorry Akari-san, but I must agree with Mamoru and Shione-sensei."

"Nobody asked you, stupid crow boy! And I don't care if I don't eat tomorrow, 'cause I'm not gonna go anyways because my nii-san's gonna take me out for ice cream all day tomorrow!" Mamoru frowned, glancing at her like she'd grown a second head.

"I didn't think you liked your older brother."

"I don't, but Obito-kun always takes me out for ice cream on Saturdays and I like him a lot better." Akari's giant white fox swatted at something that flew near her nose, chomping at the air and rolling into a better position to lay down. Shione tapped the fox with her staff.

"Hey, can this thing turn into something a little smaller? I wasn't expecting for you to summon something so big, but it'll be a pain having to lug that huge thing around with you until tomorrow, Akari."

"I am a relatively old spirit, human, I can manage at least a few tricks." Kuzunoha sat back onto her back legs, forming a few quick hand signs before seemingly disappearing in a burst of smoke. Akari's hands no longer touched fur, and she blinked a few times to clear the dust out of her eyes.

When the smoke cleared, Akari was still looking up—not at a horse-sized fox, but at the stunningly attractive face of a woman with midnight black hair and indigo eyes. She wore pale makeup on her face, and underneath her eyes there was a flash of color in smeared little streaks that only added to her ethereal and archaic beauty. Her lips were pale pink and she wore a sundress despite the fact that it was beginning to turn a little cold in the ongoing evening.

"Cool trick," Shione muttered, glancing in the opposite direction to greet the people who had gone out to search for their respective kid. "And I believe that that concludes our training for today. Good job kiddos, and I'll see you at around noon tomorrow. Also, we'll be picking out weapons tomorrow for parents and guardians to know, so be prepared to make sure that your child doesn't kill themselves. We'll be in the shop for most of the day tomorrow, but I will prepare a meal for them to eat for lunch and we'll have a picnic or something wherever they choose to go."

Akari looked at the three faces, recognizing that Kushina had come to pick her up as usual, but faltering with the other two faces. One was a stern-looking man with a scowl that was etched into his stony face and the other was a meek woman, neither of whom she had met. Itachi went with the man, while Mamoru went with the woman. She guessed they were Itachi's father, Police Chief Uchiha Fugaku, and Mamoru's main guardian and Iruka's mom, Kohari. It was usually Iruka who came for Mamoru and Itachi's mom, Mikoto, who picked him up. She liked those two better than the hard and condescending faces that she saw today.

"Bye, Akari-chan and Itachi-san. See you tomorrow!" Mamoru shouted over his shoulder, a kind-hearted grin forever plastered to his face. "You too, Shione-sensei!"

"Bye Mamoru-san, Akari-san, Shione-sensei. I look forward to our training tomorrow." Itachi waved humbly, keeping a firm hold on the crow chick with his other hand. He walked with his father, a proud individual who looked clear-headed and made Akari cringe. He seemed the type to be grounded and too caught-up in reality for her tastes. Itachi seemed too gentle to have come from and been raised by someone like that.

But that was until she thought about Mikoto-san's affectionate smile, how she had spread a feeling of warmth through her just like Kushina did. Even so, Akari couldn't fathom how a loving woman like that could care for a man like Fugaku. Not even her own father had scared her as much as he did—in fact, no man had ever seemed to scare her at all. If it weren't for the dark, Akari had thought she would be fearless. It turned out that there was something else to add to the gradually growing list of distressing things.

"Well Akari, I guess it's time for us to go as well. It was great seeing you again, Shione-san and...who is that?" Kushina raised an eyebrow, placing her hands on her hips and pursing her lips defiantly. Akari was sure that the baby in her stomach would be in for a certain treat when it would be chastised by its mother. She already knew firsthand what a pain Kushina could be.

"My name is Kuzunoha, and I am Hatake-san's summoning animal as of today." Akari ran to Kushina, letting the kitsune trail after her.

"Her name's Kitsune-y," she remembered her stuffed animal fondly, and it would make things easier on everyone if they didn't have to remember a complicated name like Kuzunoha. Or at least, that was what Akari thought.

"Oh, after your toy?" Kushina held out her hand for the kitsune, and they shook. Akari wondered where a fox had learned how to shake hands—or where she had learned how to turn into a human, for that matter. "How long will you stay with us, Kuzunoha?"

"Just for the night, if I heard correctly. I am to be sent back tomorrow morning before they meet for lunch. I will try not to cause much inconvenience for you and your husband while I stay in your home."

"We can keep her, can't we, obachan?" Kushina groaned at the prospect of some strange and most likely dirty animal sitting and sleeping and eating at her house. But then she thought of the few times Jiraiya had visited, and didn't think there would be much of a difference. Akari grinned excitedly, and Kushina couldn't help but relent and smile with her.

"Fine. She'll be your responsibility, though, Akari."

"Okay! I'll clean up any messes she makes, make sure that she gets walked every day, feed her food that foxes eat—"

"I am not a pet!" Kitsune-y hissed, glaring at Akari as though she were a pest. "And I am quite capable of taking care of myself. It has been some time since I've taken the form of a human, however I am still able to carry on by myself."

"Very well then. I'm Namikaze Kushina, Akari's caretaker, by the way. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"The same said for you, Namikaze-san. Are we leaving now?" Akari nodded, grabbing Kitsune-y's hand and running ahead with the eager energy that usually accompanied their trip home.

"Bye Shione-sensei! See you tomorrow with candy, maybe!" Akari shouted.

"I'll make you dango!" Shione retorted. Akari couldn't very well let her have the last word.

"Candy!"

"Fruit!"

"Candy!"

"If you eat well, I'll take you out for ice cream!"

"No way!"

"Oh well. Then, you'll have to starve!"

"Good!"

"Don't worry about her, Shione-san, I'll send her some food tomorrow!"

"Obachan!" Akari pouted in outrage at Kushina siding with her sensei. As she glanced over her shoulder to glower at Shione, the teenaged jonin stuck out her tongue with a smirk on her face. Akari returned the gesture, which caused Kushina to smack the back of her head. Akari winced and rubbed the back of her head jocularly.

Kitsune-y observed the humans inquisitively, but furrowed her brow when she couldn't understand what was going on and so she decided to simply stare at the scene vacantly. It didn't stir anything in her—no happiness, joy, no feelings. She was the perfect face of a soldier, ready to take orders.

"Take care!" Shione exclaimed, brushing off her stomach and pants. She held out her staff and began to walk off in another direction, an empty feeling wrenching her gut when she thought about what she'd do when she reached her empty, hollowed-out home.

That night—after dinner with an aloof Kakashi, cheerful Minato, moody Kushina, as well as a distant Kuzunoha, hereby dubbed Kitsune-y—Akari curled up on top of her small bed. She wiped the traces of dust off of the pair of Obito's goggles, hoping she could see him before noon tomorrow so that she could at least talk to him a little before training. Kitsune-y the actual fox would sleep on the floor with blankets that Minato had found for her, while Kitsune-y the not-so-actual fox would sleep in Akari's arms as she always had.

The two unlikely partners bonded by blood fell asleep to the sound of crickets outside. Well, after the summoned fox curled up next to her summoner on Akari's bed, wondering why the floor felt so hard on her skin now. She blamed it on the effects of her temporary human body, and turned back into her lithe fox form to warm herself and her tiny mistress. The weather had cooled considerably, and Kuzunoha had grown tired of being woken by the sound of teeth clattering. In her true form, she was more comfortable, and Akari curled up into her softly matted fur as well.

It almost made her smile, but both the fox and human were too drained to procure any emotions. A sigh hovered in the room as the two fell into a dreamless slumber.

* * *

**A/N: So, what'd you think? Kitsune-y (the actual animal) is based off of a certain fox spirit who is popular in lore and mentioned in a few plays. She was a fox spirit, but then someone helped her out and she took care of him and they got married and then had a kid with the guy. **

**Was this too cliche? I feel like it is, but then again I always think that my stuff is, so that's nothing that I can base anything off of. Next chapter will have weapons and a whole bunch of begging for a real mission, so get ready to travel to a foreign land! And I'd like to hear what you, as my beautiful readers, think should happen (I've got a pretty good idea, but I think I'm always open...I might be a little rude depending on when you tell me what you think; I've got make-up exams and summer classes coming up soon, so that's always fun -_-) . Anywho, be prepared for the next updates!**

**Stuff's about to get interesting, heheh.**


	12. The Path to Peril

**A/N: So I got a review (and I'm not even sure if the reviewer, InARealPickle, will see this or not) that pointed out Akari's verbal tick. I'm sorry if I made it that annoying, I'll try to tone it down in the next chapters. If it makes you feel better, I planned on having her grow out of it. The thing is, Akari's a little sibling and she's supposed to be an annoying character. That's why she's always vying for attention using physical or other sorts of tactics. I apologize if I overdid it in the dialogue.**

**Now that that's cleared (and I sincerely hope I didn't offend anyone) I'd like to thank:**

**CRAZY QUEEN HB for favoriting**

**534667lc for the kind review again**

**Psycho-Jellybean for favoriting and following**

**sasuhina542000 for following and favoriting**

**koreanlover21873 for following and favoriting**

**Pikalu for favoriting**

**And InARealPickle for pointing the aforementioned things in a review**

* * *

Kushina groaned at the mess on Akari's floor. Shards of splintered wood lay everywhere, and her eyes eventually trailed to Akari's bed—or what used to be her bed. It was now just a mattress on a pile of even more useless wood, and Akari was covered in the mass of fur that was Kitsune-y, her summoning fox.

"I can understand the excitement to bond with your animal, Akari, but was this really necessary? Who do you think's gonna pick this mess up? Tch, I'll force Minato to do it." She brushed a strand of crimson hair behind her ear, walking to the side of the fox and child. Akari always looked so tranquil when she was asleep. It would be a shame to wake her and take away the times when she could find rest in these rare moments. Still, she had to get up because there were people outside waiting for her.

"Akari, it's time to go with your team. Wake up," The little girl jumped, kicking the covers off her in surprise and maneuvering around the fox to stand at attention. However, when she spotted the cherry hair at the doorway, she froze and relaxed a little. "Did you sleep well last night?"

"Not really, there was a really loud sound outside and it wouldn't let me go to sleep." The fox uncurled enough to show the red specks of fur around her face, and Kushina grabbed Akari in her arms, mindful of the bump carrying her child. "Morning Kitsune-y."

"Is that blood around her mouth, Akari?" Kushina's arms clenched around her as she prepared to run. The little girl looked up at her and then back to the fox, who curled in on herself and seemed to shed her body for the smaller one of a kit. Remembering the experience last night, she nodded.

"Probably. They said they were going to eat me, silly foxes." Kushina raised an eyebrow, her pastel grey eyes glancing at the animal as she unfolded herself and stretched languidly.

"Morning, Kitsune-y." The fox spirit growled out some kind of riposte that made Akari grin sheepishly as she looked up at Kushina. "So what's for breakfast?"

* * *

"I'm here!" Akari shouted breathlessly, panting from her running and shortcut-taking to get to the weaponsmith on time today. Since the store was located near the edge of the village, it'd taken her a while to get there from the Namikaze house on Main Street in the center of the village.

When she got to the entrance, where she found her auburn-haired sensei standing with her typical bo staff, she only found two people waiting. Itachi, ever punctual, was waiting with their sensei, but Mamoru was nowhere to be found. Akari wondered where her teammate was, especially since he'd seemed so excited last night at the prospect of picking out weapons. And eating afterwards.

"H-hey!" Akari turned to face the sound, peering at Mamoru. He came running around the corner with a red face and heavy panting. "S-sorry I'm late, I didn't mean it! I had to buy some things for Mrs. Umino, but then she made me help her make breakfast, and time just got away from me."

Shione shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal. She yawned a little as she lackadaisically addressed him.

"It's fine, Mamoru. I won't hold it against you this time, since this is the first time you've been late in four months. Also, Akari just got here too, so it wasn't like you were _that _late." Her arms stretched themselves against her long staff, and she groaned when her back cracked. "Let's go inside and get this over with."

She led the way in, past stacks of many different swords in all sorts of sizes; beyond the shuriken that sat on the walls and the boxes of other throwing utensils; even overlooking the colorful scrolls and fans and knife coverings that shone on display cases. A sort of shuffling came from behind a desk at the front of the shop, one that startled Akari and Mamoru. Itachi and Shione were unfazed.

"Takumi." Their jonin leader called, earning a loud thump and a groan from the person behind the desk. "I did tell you we were coming today. Don't you remember our entire conversation yesterday?"

A startlingly lanky man popped up over the countertop, wiping his hands on an already stained apron. His face looked too long without enough fat to fill in his cheeks very well, and there were worry lines around his eyes and forehead. No such lines were near his nose, which meant that he wasn't generally a jolly sort of person if he didn't smile or laugh. His hair was dark brown, but looked like it held traces of red or orange dye.

His hands seemed unable to keep still, and he wore glasses to shield his four customers from the blunt of his condescending glare. Takumi mostly wore dark leather in his boots, gloves, and in a headband to keep his cropped hair away from his face. His shirt was a deep green, like the leaves on the trees when no sunlight shone on them. The patched pants that he wore were an assortment of beige and darker colors, as if he couldn't decide which one he liked the most. He wore a smudged white apron over his clothes.

"I remember you coming in and giving me grief about my last minute policy. You should know that I can't accept personalized weaponry requests under the strict laws that everything must go to shinobi fighting in the war. They've been working me like a dog ever since this god-forsaken war broke out, and I haven't gotten half of what I deserve for it. I don't have time for your petty little pretend fighting, little missy."

Shione scoffed, leaning against the desk and pushing her sunglasses further up the bridge of her nose. Akari could just imagine her rolling her eyes, although she'd yet to see her sensei's actual eyes.

"Come on, Takumi. Can't you do it as a personal favor?" He shook his head, greasy hair flying anywhere but his face.

"Sorry Toshiko, but no deal. Even if I had the materials, I'd need at least two days. Probably more, since you want them especially personalized. I could give you the basic stuff for the genin, but anything more will cost you an arm and a leg." Shione turned to the general direction of her triumvirate of students.

"You guys should look around for stuff that catches your eye. I'll be with you shortly." The three heads nodded obediently, grateful to have an excuse to get away from the scene. They traveled in their group for a while, losing a person at each different display case.

Akari was the first to diverge after spotting a collection of swords. She tried to pick each of them up, being careful around the edges and making sure not to cut herself. It was definitely a struggle lifting the swords, especially those which were longer than she was tall and weighed even more than she did. Eventually, she moved on to smaller knives that she pretended to hide into her sleeves and stab people with.

Mamoru was instantly attracted to the longest sword in the shop, also having to reach for the weapons with long hilts and short blades in comparison. His attention also wavered when he caught sight of the specially generated senju armor, which he had seen before but never worn.

Itachi kept a level head, only perusing a few weapons in casings or behind glass. He wasn't nearly as excited about the whole matter as his teammates, as he would be fine with standardized weaponry. The occasional shuriken or katana caught his eye, but other than that he knew he was just browsing. He sighed in bemused reluctance when he peered over at his teammates and saw Mamoru trying on a heavy-looking set of armor and Akari lugging around an exceptionally large o-wakizashi that nearly pulled her arms out of their sockets.

"Alright then, I'll go with Akari if you show my other two students around and help them look." Shione announced, feeling around with her staff to make her way to her only female student. Her chakra was one of the hardest to memorize, as it was so unique in that it constantly changed just a little so that it would be unnoticeable if Shione wasn't so excellent at telling the difference between people's chakra.

Akari watched as Itachi and Mamoru were ushered away by the swordsmith. Shione gingerly grabbed a few things, trying to weigh them with her fingers. The first thing she handed Akari was a long sword with a leather-wrapped hilt. The sword was surprisingly light, even though it was nearly the size of one of Akari's arms when outstretched.

"What do you think of it?" Shione asked curiously, letting an unusually kind smile grace her visage. Akari looked the sword over once, swiping in the air and noticing a trail of light following the weapon. She hesitantly put it down, remembering that Kakashi owned one just like it. In fact, he'd gotten it from their father. Her mind turned to the night when she'd found it just out of his reach when he'd collapsed on the floor, dead.

"I don't want it."

"Why not?" Shione muttered, grabbing the hilt out of her hand. "It's light, it's small, and it's also a chakra blade. What's not to like about it?"

"I just don't want it!" Akari pouted, crossing her arms across her chest. "It looks funny, anyway."

"Fine. But that's probably one of the best swords for you to get." Her eyes slit behind her sunglasses, reading the little girl's chakra flow. Based on that, her hands were clenched and her muscles were taut. Maybe some kind of anger, unsureness, or past trauma with swords?

The jonin nearly smacked herself when she realized. Of course the girl had past trauma with a tanto, she'd found her father dead with one in his hand. Shione had read the case files (or, rather, listened to someone read them to her), but it didn't usually affect Akari this much to think about or talk about her father. In fact, she'd even opened up and had no problem talking about how her family had once gone to watch the cherry blossoms in spring.

Meeting in the middle with a little girl with so many past problems was difficult. Maybe she should try to talk to Akari about it. She wasn't a psychiatrist or anything, but that could work in her favor since Akari had refused to talk to the therapists she'd been forced to speak with before (another little trinket she'd learned in the case files from the aftermath of her father's suicide). The more Shione thought about it, the more she just wanted to bury it into the back of her mind. That would be work for some other day, she assured herself.

"Okay, so no swords yet. How about we pick out some long-distance weapons for you, since you'll be the lookout anyway." Akari nodded, feeling only a little abashed. Shione felt around on the displays and sought after a kunai. When she found it, she held it up, and immediately sat it back down.

"Go find some senbon and kunai that you like."

Grateful to be able to look on her own, Akari ran off to a nearby stand with a bunch of flashy senbon that glittered in different colors and sizes. Of course she had to touch every one of them, which would keep her busy for a while as her sensei looked for an appropriate knife for the young kunoichi. Something easily concealed, something light, something that wouldn't wear her down and something that Shione could teach the kid how to use.

She saw Itachi and Mamoru's chakra move with them as they walked about the store. Takumi was invisible to her, which was normal. She wondered what her other two students were looking at, but she knew that they were probably some heavier swords or something of the sort.

Meanwhile, Akari had grabbed a box of senbon and kunai knives (as she was running low on both sets of weapons, and the new ones looked so much cooler and shinier than her old ones). The little girl's attention had also drifted to a dart gun, which she figured would be awesome to have when she wanted to annoy Itachi and/or Mamoru. When she turned around to take them to Shione for her to agree or disagree on her choices.

When her sensei merely shrugged at her and told her to use her best judgement, Akari grinned and ran off to another display that had eased her attention away from the rest of the store. It sat, isolated, without any other displays in an extended distance.

It wasn't a very noticeable distance, since the showcase space was limited due to the size of the shop, but Akari had a keen eye for things like subtle differences and things that messed with her minuscule OCD problem. Her little issue was typically remedied by her eating one singular portion of her food at a time in a specific order, stacking Minato's papers when he was finished with work, or by fixing her dolls in a certain area with a specific amount of distance between them so that they looked even. This special display case violated her standard rules.

But when she saw inside it, her mind was once again drawn away from her initial train of thought. Her eyes widened as she saw the fan on the bottom shelf, like a dusty old rich lady's handkerchief. She'd seen one in a manga she had read before, a lackluster thing in and of itself, yet the fan had arrested her attention from the main character and made her forget about the subpar plot.

And this fan looked pretty cool, with a silvery tree snaking across it and curling over the bright red metal of the fan. The vibrant colors kept her attracted to the thing, and she wanted it more than she wanted anything else. Of course, that was also what she'd thought about the kunai knives and senbon she'd gotten.

"Shione-sensei! I want this one, too!" Shione lifted her head from her inspection of a small sword. Akari wondered bemusedly what her jonin sensei had been doing, with her face so close to the miniature katana-like sword. It wasn't like she could see it or anything.

"What is it, Akari?" She asked, brushing her dark auburn hair from her face as she carefully prodded over to her youngest student.

"It's a fan! I really want it, can I please get it? Pretty please? _Please_?" Shione scoffed, wrinkling her brow.

"What do you need a fan for? It's certainly not practical in any fighting situation, since it'd be too brittle and feeble, even if it's made of metal. Also, I can't teach you how to use it, so it'd just be a waste of money."

"But sensei, I _need_ it!" She sighed at Akari's antics, having expected some sort of tantrum during the shopping experience. It was why she was so adamant about the little girl sticking with her: she could easily carry Akari out of the shop and discipline her outside if necessary. It would create the least amount of damage and/or stress for all involved in this journey.

"You know, Toshiko," a voice had crept up on her, and whispered into her ear. "It's on clearance at the lowest price I've ever had it! It'd be a shame to let the little missy go home without the weapon she wanted, wouldn't you say?"

Shione swiped at the air, missing her mark by who-knew how much, and growled at Takumi for using his chakra-less body and furtive feet to sneak up on her. If only her damned eyes would work like they were supposed to, maybe she would be able to see everything that anyone else could.

"Takumi, I swear if you get near me again I'll murder you in front of my kids!" Shione threatened emptily, cracking her knuckles viciously nonetheless. "And stop trying to sell me your shit. Tessen are practically useless in battles."

"Sensei, isn't Akari supposed to be our scout?" Itachi softly interrupted, earning the slightest attention from Shione. "Aren't fans generally used in war to transmit signals from one person to the next?"

"Hands work perfectly fine for that, too. Although I'm sure that Akari would love to waste money on something stupid like a fan, it wouldn't survive any foreign missions. It'd just be a deadweight to carry around with her, especially when she needs to keep herself light on her feet." Akari, who had been pouting until that point at being told _no_, butt in with her own argument.

And all the cash that she'd stuffed into her pockets before hastily leaving that morning.

"Can I buy it myself?" The question was pointed towards the shopkeep, Takumi, instead of her sensei. It would be easier to convince him to let her have it than it would be for her to change Shione's mind. Her sensei fumed silently while Takumi counted the money, handing her back less than 50 ryo.

"The fan's yours, sweetheart." He smiled saccharinely, looking at the rest of the students and avoiding Shione in particular. "Anything else for you fine gentlemen?"

Mamoru, who looked cautious around his sensei's glower, warily held up a set of bandages and certain ointments to treat various things. His youngest teammate eyed him in bewilderment, having never known that he held any interest in the medical field. He shrugged, dark green eyes flashing with excitement as he paid for the box of first-aid equipment.

At the end of the shopping trip, Akari had a pocket knife that Shione assured her would be useful, a ko-wakizashi (it's a little bit bigger than a tanto, is that alright Akari?), the tessen fan, and new kunai and senbon. Itachi had been gifted a short, asymmetrical bow with quiver and arrows, and two swords of varying sizes as well. Finally, as Mamoru's took the longest, the oldest member of the team obtained his first-aid kit, a long sword, some heavier kunai than he'd gotten from the Academy, and a set of light armor since he would be the main brute force.

As they left the shop, Akari pestered her sensei into asking for a better mission with the help of Mamoru and, surprisingly, Itachi.

"Sensei, it's boring chasing cats all day! Can't you convince ojisan to give us a better mission than that?" Shione yawned, rubbing her eyes under the sunglasses she always wore. She knew she shouldn't have set the time so early for the day, but they'd gotten finished just before lunch time.

"You live with him, Akari. Don't you think that if you annoy him enough, he'll give us something to do?"

"I tried to, but my big brother keeps telling him that we're too little to go on missions outside the village." Mamoru, who was haphazardly swinging a picnic basket from Shione's house, pitched in with his opinion.

"I don't think that Lord Fourth would take Akari's word over yours, Shione-sensei. I mean, he obviously likes her well enough to let her live in his house, but you're our jonin leader so you should be the one to tell him." Her auburn hair swished around her face when she heard that.

"But…they really won't let me into the Hokage Tower; that's for important things, and I don't ever see him to ask about our missions. Er, maybe you three should ask him together. Yeah! That way, he won't be able to say no if you three keep badgering him. There's really no need for me to get involved, is there? I mean, you need to learn independence, so that's good for that too." Itachi smiled at her kindly, reassuringly enough.

"Sensei, could it be that perhaps you're frightened to speak with Lord Fourth?" She frowned, pursing her lips and crossing her arms childishly.

"That's not it at all! If anything, I don't want to talk to him because if I annoy him enough, he could completely reject me from Anbu." Akari smirked, a glint of mischief in her eyes.

"I wondered why you looked so uncomfortable coming to my house on New Year's!" Shione snorted, stepping in front of her students and moving her staff around as if scanning the scenery.

"That's because your house is far away and I can't see where I'm going, you idiot. Don't you remember how I kept running into your coffee table?" Their sensei sat on the ground, but her students piled around behind her in the cool shade of an oak. The tree had lived in harmony with the villagers for centuries, even before the village had been settled and founded by their beloved First Hokage. Now it held marks of wear and tear, and streaks of bark were missing from the trunk of the scarred tree.

Mamoru set down his picnic basket and dished out the boxes of bento. The boxes of food smelled delicious, but looked disgusting. The two boys kindly and politely picked at their mismatched meal, but Akari couldn't stomach the sight of it and only ate the sweet bun that her teacher had put in the box.

"Either way, we need to come up with a way to help to our fullest extent. The next group of Academy students will be graduating at the end of the summer semester, and we'll practically have been the same that we have been since December." Itachi calmly reasoned.

"Yeah, we can't be outdone by some new kids! It's not fair to us if the Hokage doesn't let us get some work done. And we have the Chunin Exam to prepare for in the fall, since we couldn't take it last month." Akari, feeling like she couldn't just let them walk over Minato, spoke up.

"I'll talk to him. He's just…" she tried to grasp the words to explain him. "He just doesn't want us to get hurt, I guess. Uncle Minato'll listen to me. In fact, I'll tell him everything tomorrow, and then he'll let us go, right?"

She figured that she already had it worked out in her head. Minato wasn't unreasonable, so it wouldn't take much for her to convince him that she was ready to go outside the village for the first time. He couldn't hold her back for much longer, anyway. There was a whole world beyond the gates of Konohagakure, and it called out to her with all its heart.

* * *

**A/N: Coming up next: The Mission to Suna! What do you expect to happen? Any ideas to share? There's plenty of room in the reviews, also if you have any constructive criticism or a problem with something that one of my characters does, please speak up. I would hate to lose any readers because of something easily fixed from here on out!**


	13. Traveler's Lullaby

**A/N: so hello there children I am not dead anymore but I have maybe two chapters that I can spread out so that they're not God-awfully long (like this one is /shot/). Anyway I'd like to take this time to thank eac and every single one of you still reading or interested or reviewing or favoriting. I won't name them all because my email had a few issues before I cancelled it and I'm having problems okay. Okay. Also I have this to do and I haven't even looked at in months. So there's that. But I wrote a book! It's terrible, but I'm proud i finished it. Guys I suck at this I'm sorry:(**

"But Uncle Minato, it's boring delivering supplies all the time!" Akari whined at breakfast while Minato stared over the paper and the body toll from his latest missions. There was no way that Akari was capable of taking care of herself in a fighting situation, like the kind he knew she was aching for. He couldn't sate her without giving her unnecessary action.

"None of the genin teams have left the village in the past few months, Akari. Things are starting to really heat up again in the war, and I don't want you to get yourself hurt." She pouted, ignoring the bits of chocolate that stained her cheeks and chin. It made his heart wrench to see her looking so upset, but it wasn't enough emotional stress to make him reconsider.

Not yet, at least.

"Shione, are we almost there?" Mamoru questioned, fiddling with his pack strap. The genin team and jonin leader were being accompanied by another team on their mission. Akari excitedly grinned to herself, wondering what it would be like once they got to the new country. It was supposed to be just a whole bunch of desert and dry sand, based on what Shione had told them, but it was enough to peak her interest just by being outside of her usual realm. Besides, she'd never seen a desert in person. It'd be interesting having traveled there after reading about deserts in a recent book she'd perused.

Akari turned to look over her shoulder at the three chunin following behind them, and smiled when she caught Obito's eye. Their team leader, who kept a close eye on their surroundings, avoided her gaze. Minato was still a little sore with her, it seemed. Ah well, he'd forgive her when night fell and she could lay on the charm that she'd seen Kakashi use to get free meals out of older ladies before. It was basically the same thing, anyway.

"We just left less than half an hour ago, Mamoru. Chill," Shione muttered back. She walked behind her students, watching where they moved and copying their steps to make sure that she didn't trip over anything in the thick underbrush in the Land of Fire's dense forestry.

Itachi stood in the middle of the group as their self-assigned leader, and Akari stood a little ahead of him on his left while Mamoru took his right and lagged behind as usual. Akari fiddled with her gloves and the cloth bandages around her palms and wrists. Her casual aloofness was hiding her hypersensitive mind as she listened warily to the sounds of the thinning forest.

Shione was humming an oddly quaint tune, one with a few quiet ups and downs from her as if she were hiding from the team behind her. Often, she'd mutter words to herself out of boredom or mirth. Her teacher was always so difficult to read as far as emotions went, especially since she wore sunglasses all the time. It had earned a few strands of thought in Akari's mind, but she'd drifted off of them in a timely fashion as soon as she found a bird or a lizard or some other slithering thing in the forest to snatch her attention.

The path was hot in the growing sun and warming season, and Akari wondered if Minato had intentionally waited to let her go on the mission during the summer just so that she would suffer enough to never want to leave home again. Of course, she'd prepared for it by getting light clothes and by using a trick that Shione had taught them so that their weapons could be kept in scrolls instead of hanging at their sides. All the girl carried was the pocket knife—the kaiken, rather—her fan, and a pack stuffed with her weapons scroll and plenty of food pills.

Also, she carried Obito's goggles as a token of good fortune on the mission, even though she knew he would've been coming with her team.

Speaking of Team Minato, Kakashi had surprisingly taken the lead. That wasn't to say that he usually lagged behind, but he typically conserved his energy by sticking in the middle of his team on journey. Everyone on his team (but him, as it was) knew that he did it so he could watch over his little sister as she skipped ahead and stared at every bush and twig on the road. They knew how protective he was of his younger sister; even Minato found that he couldn't compare to Kakashi's love for her. However, due to relatively recent events, Kakashi hadn't wanted to be held back by any such feelings and had neglected her, leaving Akari to seek love from the rest of his team.

They were both strangely vindictive in their ways. Kakashi, because he ignored his younger sister or pushed her away when he dubbed that she'd gotten too close to him. Akari because, once seeing his seemingly uncaring attitude towards her, had wormed her way closer to Obito, whom she knew Kakashi despised recently because of the clash in their natures.

It was exhausting for the other three members of Team Minato to watch them go around and around in circles, neither one admitting that they cared for the other sibling. Both were too stubborn for something like that. It seemed to be hereditary.

"Hey Rin," Obito started, drawing out the girl's name. Minato hid a smile at the young boy, who was in love in a completely different way with his female student. His kids were all so cute in their own ways.

"Hm? Oh, yes Obito?" She'd been staring at Kakashi, which made for another irritating love story amongst his students. Of course Minato knew everything between them: how Obito pined over Rin, who in turn always requested Kakashi's attention, who in turn fixated his watchful eyes on Akari and seemed immune to any romantic advances. Which then only made things worse because Akari had certainly taken a liking to Obito, especially during recent events. It would be odd when they grew up and couldn't act like children anymore. One of them would eventually have to make a stance.

"I-I, uh…your hair looks pretty today." He hid a chuckle at the slight praise, and how Rin exclaimed that she was glad that he noticed she'd gotten a haircut recently. The girl wasn't thick skulled or anything, it was just that Obito was too vague when he tried to compliment her.

"Hey Kakashi, maybe we should sit together for dinner. I brought extra food, if you want to share." Obito's eyes twitched in annoyance as he watched Rin blatantly try to show her affections for Kakashi. The silver-haired boy looked at her quizzically.

"I brought my own food. There's no need for it to go to waste. That idiot Obito's probably forgotten his food, so ask him if he needs it. He'll only slow us down even more if he's hungry." Obito's hands twitched into fists. Kakashi's statement had earned Akari's attention, and she turned to walk backwards down the trail.

"Ne, I'll share with you, Obito!" Her brilliant smile was only heightened by the obvious exhilaration she was feeling, and she even threw in a little laugh to show that she meant well by it. Obito, however, seemed a little irked that the little kunoichi had gotten in his way to share food with Rin.

"U-uh, I actually brought my own food."

"Okay then!" Akari seemed unaffected by Obito's standoffish response, and even started a cheerful banter with her own teammates. "Ne, Ita, what'd you bring to eat?"

Minato couldn't stop his raised eyebrow when he heard her speak to the younger Uchiha with such familiarity that she'd even included a nickname…it was unexpected, but extremely cute nonetheless. He grinned as he watched the whole love-circle (as it had far surpassed being a triangle) thicken even more. Kakashi, Obito, and even Rin looked a little stricken at how she addressed Itachi: one with appraisal of the young boy because of his protectiveness over the girl, another with the haughty look of a friend making sure that a possible relationship between the two was alright with him, and the last with a high level of respect and intrigue at how such a young girl was able to make moves on a boy who was clearly older than her and still come off as adorable; in that order.

"Hm, I think my mother might've made some dango."

"Oh really? What kind? Your mom's cooking is really yummy!" Akari chirped, making Kakashi freeze up at the idea that his little sister—his little sister could've eaten another boy's food that had come from his house. She was too young to be dealing with boys like that! Wasn't that supposed to wait for another decade, at the very least?! His little sister…no! It was too much to believe! Obito had been enough trouble without having any feelings other than friendship for Akari, but Kakashi didn't even know this boy who was talking so amicably with his little sister! His little sister!

Obito had choked at the thought that Akari was spending time with another boy. That was his thing with her, and it was their special thing to go out to eat!

Rin was mostly oblivious to the boy's reactions, and continued listening intently.

"I think it's bocchan dango, but I'm not sure." Itachi smiled down at Akari, who'd slowed down to walk by his side so that it would be easier to talk. Kakashi nearly snarled at the little boy, who was too much of a pretty boy to have his smile be anything less than stunning, even for a seven year old. "You're in a rather good mood today, Akari. It couldn't possibly be the fact that you know every single person on the team behind us, now could it?"

"Hey, it was them or nothing! Uncle Minato said that he wouldn't let us go if we didn't have him and his team as escorts." Most sets of eyes trailed to the blond Hokage, all except for one pair that was hidden behind a set of sunglasses.

"Lord Hokage, did you really need to tag along, though? We're Akari's teammates, don't you think we could take care of her?" Mamoru tried to politely phrase it, but it came out a little more crass than he'd intended.

"Teacher, is that true?" Rin wondered, eyes trailing his face as he put on a collected smile and nodded.

"Absolutely!" He chirped, watching Akari to see if she'd tell how exactly she'd weaseled her team on the mission in the first place. Minato had initially chalked the mission up to something that his team could do alone, and that it would be a simple diplomatic mission to Sunagakure. He'd be the one to personally speak with the Kazekage regarding Konohagakure's treaty and alliance with the nation. Also, there might be some talk of tailed beasts, specifically the Kazekage's intent to have a child that carried his village's beast. That wouldn't be talk for young children, such as the ones on Team Shione.

But Akari had insisted, and even gotten Kushina to somehow take her side, and the constant barrage of questions regarding a foreign mission had become unbearable. At least now he could watch over the little girl, with minimal action and yet still quenching her thirst for a look-see outside of the country. Killed two birds with one stone, really. Sort of.

"Ne, my legs hurt Shione!" Akari cried, biting the inside of her bottom lip. Her auburn-haired teacher didn't even look at her to tell her off.

"Then stop jumping around everywhere. We're not stopping until it's too dark for your weak eyes to see the road, so shut your trap and keep walking." Minato felt a sort of relief crashing through him when he noticed how Shione was more than willing to keep track of Akari. That would be one less worry of his, if he didn't have to discipline her on the mission.

"That was a little harsh," Rin muttered, pitying the younger girl who had started dragging her feet melodramatically. There was no doubt that she was dropping the hint so that someone would offer to carry her. It was actually a little shocking how manipulative Akari could be if she put on a heart-wrenching face, and she obviously found no guilt in tripping up others for her good. It was probably just a childish phase that she was going through—Minato had no doubt that being around the selfless Uchiha prodigy would help her get over it.

"She needs harsh." Kakashi insisted, surprisingly sticking up for the jonin whom he still hadn't forgiven for dragging him to the New Year's party. "You just haven't seen her when she's bad."

"And you have?" Obito questioned as a tentative challenge, which Kakashi slit his eyes at.

"Why wouldn't I have?" Seeing that his two students were continually toeing the line with each other, daring the other to take another step out on the thin ice, Minato cut into their conversation.

"Let's stop for a break. It's getting hot out, and so we should find shade so that we don't get overheated on the way."

"I'll go get some fresh water," Obito mumbled, earning Akari's attention.

"Me too!" She looked up at Shione, asking for permission which came in the form of a nod.

"Suit yourself, but don't cause Obito problems, Akari." Her words were mostly unnoticed as the youngest kunoichi bounced off into the foliage behind her Uchiha companion. "Lord Fourth, when she comes back, please tell her that we're training and that she shouldn't slack off on the way."

"Of course. Rin, why don't you go with them? I'd heard that Mamoru held an interest in medicine." She nodded excitedly, and smiled at the two younger boys as she led the way with Shione into the woods.

"Rin's hardly a medic." Kakashi bit, often glancing over in the direction that Akari had left.

"Be nice, Kakashi."

"I am."

"Then be nicer." The chunin nearly smiled.

"That's asking too much." Minato sighed, but grabbed the leftover bags and set them down in the shade.

"Teacher, I—" but Kakashi cut himself off, deeming his topic something he could not say to his mentor. Minato would throw a fit if Kakashi told him what he really thought of Obito, and even Rin. They were just nuisances, really, and he couldn't see a point in traveling with them if they would hold him back. Kakashi wasn't going to turn out like his father—he'd learn from that mistake—and he'd move on and not let unnecessary baggage get to him. He'd be better off without any teammates, which he knew would only dampen everyone else's spirits at his lack of teamwork. Plus, he was looking forward to being a jonin once Minato filled all the papers out. Jeopardizing his promotion would be a pain to have to recompense, especially if his teammates knew why he wasn't promoted as they'd been told he would.

Of course, Akari was a completely different situation. There was no messing with their bond any more than the damage he'd already done between them. And even that could be repaired, especially when he looked at how Akari would sometimes smile at him when he caught her brushing the hair of the doll he'd given her months ago for her birthday. The doll was always pristine and never held a trace of dust. He'd also caught her folding up his old scarf—the one that he'd given her when she'd gotten cold during her Academy Graduation Ceremony.

Yet she didn't treat the things from him like the ones she'd gotten from Obito. His were treated with care and brief tenderness, yes, but Obito's? Well, it was clear that Akari must really love him or something along those lines, if she cared so much about his gifts that she took them everywhere with her, like pieces of Obito that she couldn't bear to lose. It was actually a little creepy how she had to take his goggles everywhere and diligently kept them in good condition like a shrine maiden attending to them.

But that wouldn't stop him from trying to edge closer to her, trying to see how far away he could go before she broke and needed him back. It was a backwards sort of thinking, reverse psychology he supposed, but it made so much sense to him. Akari would need him if he was distant, and then he could swoop in and save her from whatever had made her collapse. He could be there for her by being away. And she'd break and he'd fix her and make her stronger.

The sky passed overhead in the washed-out colors of May, with only a few blips of clouds to cover them from the harsh sun. It was too hot for the season, even if it was nearing summer. Akari nearly voiced her opinion, but wondered if Minato would sink to tell her that she should've stayed home if she couldn't handle a little heat. She could handle the heat just fine as long as she was out of the village.

That didn't mean that she wasn't grateful for the cover of nightfall, when Shione tapped her fingers to some beat and hummed her own songs to herself as the beginnings of a small fire spread to the logs that Obito and Mamoru circled. Shione had to be constantly dragged away from the flames, as she kept inching too close to the fire as the nearest source of warmth. Rin sat near Kakashi on the opposite side of the fire, with the older kids' tents and the food that she was cooking for the group as a whole. Obito sat on the other side of Rin, and sitting doggedly beside him was Akari.

"It's so quiet when we're not in the village." Mamoru murmured, shuddering closer to the fire. It wasn't the chill of the night that caused him to do so, as the night was sultry and balmy. Maybe it was because the lack of people made him feel lonely. Akari never thought of Mamoru as a people-person, but maybe he just enjoyed company.

"I like it," Akari rejoined. "There are less people to have to talk to."

"It feels nice, at least." Itachi fiddled with a kunai. Akari thought he looked strange, a little too edgy for it to be as nice as he said it was. She didn't ask him about it, though, because she knew that there were other people around. She wouldn't want to talk about anything wrong with an audience watching.

"It's boring." Obito whined. "There's nothing to do out here."

"We could play a game," Rin suggested.

"Games are boring."

"You could shut your mouth and stop whining." Kakashi scolded. "You're such a pain to deal with, Obito."

"Kakashi, play nice." Minato reminded.

"It's difficult when I'm paired with an imbecile like him!"

"What did you call me?"

"It's the truth: you're an idiot who can hardly take care of himself. You're holding me and Rin back."

"That's enough, Kakashi."

Even Akari scoffed at them. Her teamwork wasn't the best either, but at least she wasn't constantly harassing her teammates. The older team was going to be more trouble than her team of rookies. What a pain it was to have to deal with her brother and Obito fighting.

"I can see the family resemblance now." Mamoru nodded to himself, muttering cynically. Akari turned to him curiously.

"What family resemblance?"

"Between you and Kakashi. You're both really mean to other people, especially when you don't know them very well. And now that I think about it, you treated me a lot like that when we first became friends, didn't you?"

"That's because you kept wanting me to teach you how to use a kunai when we were about to graduate. It was annoying having to show you how to do something that you should've already known."

"I guess so," Mamoru murmured, unsure of his answer.

"I don't remember you treating me harshly, Akari." Itachi mused.

"You were just as annoying, it's just that you kept apologizing for everything. Plus, it was really boring talking to you."

"That's hurtful, Akari."

"Yeah, so what? It's the truth."

"You don't need to be so blunt about it."

"If I try to make the words sound any nicer, it takes up too much breath when I talk." This earned her a whack to the top of her head, something that caused her to yelp and press her fingers to the bruising area on her scalp. "Hey teach, that hurt!"

"Akari, you play nice, too," Shione chided, placing her staff back on the ground beside her. It earned her a self-righteous glare from her youngest student.

Rin bit her lip, watching the conversations between people of both teams as they played out before her. The food over the fire, simple fish and rice with sparse vegetables, was charring nicely and so she had to keep a close eye on it so that they wouldn't have to eat charcoal for dinner. Mamoru was kind enough to help her set the platform up and watch over the food that she couldn't quite reach out in the middle of the stand.

"I don't want fish for dinner," Akari murmured, leaning into Obito and pouting out her bottom lip. He set his hand on top of her head, mindful of the bump from Shione's staff.

"You like rice, don't you?"

"Rice cake."

"Eating fish makes you smarter, something that would greatly help you." Shione retorted, fiddling with her sunglasses while she spoke.

"That's just an old wives' tale." Kakashi butted in with a scowl.

"Actually, some research shows that it's good for your brain," Rin answered amicably. "It's some recent business, but there were some scientists in Kirigakure who tested it out."

"I saw that somewhere," Mamoru added, sounding scholarly when he spoke to Rin. "It boosts blood flow to the brain. It's something that happens when you eat any food rich in omega-3. It can also decrease reaction time and lessen soreness after difficult tasks."

"Aren't they trying to use it to treat dementia and other mental ailments in older people as well? I heard they were testing that in some clinics in some big city somewhere." Their conversation passionately continued as they discussed various medical issues, giving their opinions, and then either smiling or trying to sway the other to their views in a respectable manner.

Akari scrunched up her nose at them. Why couldn't they just be normal people without a love for health? They were such nerds. Her eyes darted to Itachi, who sat close to the fire and occasionally responded to something that Minato said. They were probably talking about the mission, especially now that she saw Shione getting involved in the conversation. There was nothing spectacular about them.

Once she'd checked on their actions, she glanced over at Kakashi, who was staring at her. It was creepy, if she had to put a word to it, and she frowned at him before looking up at Obito. Before she could ask him if something was wrong, or why he was peering at a tree instead of Rin, she smelled something that reminded her uncannily of—

"Hey nerds!" She exclaimed, earning Mamoru and Rin's attention (something she didn't expect to happen, but was strangely glad that they had realized what nerds they truly were). They looked at her expectantly, along with the others who wondered what her outburst was about. "Food's burning."

It took them a few moments before they turned to their fish and rice, which were, in fact, smoldering over the fire. Unfortunately, Akari found that the vegetables had yet to be put on the platform to cook, and so they could still be eaten.

The remnants of the evening passed without much happening, not until four tents were assigned to two people each. One held Kakashi and Obito, another Shione and Rin, the third with Itachi and Mamoru, but the last one was empty. Minato and Akari sat in front of the dying fire, watching the flickering ashes as they were sometimes swept up in the breeze and flung outside of the fire pit out of their lines of vision.

"You look tired, Akari. It'll be okay if you decide to sleep for a while. You'll probably need it so we can finish out the trip tomorrow." She frowned at him, but couldn't even offer up a glare with her eyelids drooping.

"I'm not sleepy," Akari persisted, although she didn't even believe herself. "Not even a little tired. I'm okay."

"If you say so."

Minato held out his arms for her, something that she couldn't bear to resist, no matter her will in the situation. She found herself sitting on his lap, her head pressing into his stomach as she closed her eyes for a few seconds. At least she could still control whether or not she fell asleep.

Her frozen blue eyes traced the remnants of the fire, the smoke and the ashes. Eventually sitting still was tempting her to go to sleep, and so she stood up and stretched her arms over her head with a gentle yawn. She didn't really have to go, but she gave it as an excuse so that Minato wouldn't get suspicious as to why she was leaving to walk around. She needed something to stimulate her senses, something to keep her awake just to get over these next few hours until she got a new wave of energy.

Even so, fighting off the feeling that told her to just fall to the ground and sleep was difficult. She didn't have much stamina as far as meticulous tasks went, and so walking for hours was harsh on her tiny muscles. Now her body wanted to rest, but her mind fought against it in the unaccustomed environment that she was in. The crickets outside were too close, and it smelled disgusting. Her stomach wasn't filled from the burnt fish and hard rice, and she'd rejected any offers of vegetables. Instead she'd been forced to eat some of the food pellets stuffed into her bag, and she hadn't been able to swallow them so they'd sat in her mouth until she'd had to taste the bitterness of the capsules.

In the darkness of the woods, movement caught her attention. It was much too big to be a rabbit, and it was shaped too oddly to be a deer. She heard the smooth trickle of a stream when she was away from the crackling of what had once been the campfire, There was a clearing that she watched the creature step into, and then it crouched into a different figure.

It wasn't some odd creature at all, it was just Itachi.

"You're supposed to be asleep," she softly scolded him, squatting to sit beside him. The beams from the moon illuminated the stream, and when Akari turned to her teammate, she saw his head twist to the side and his long hair concealed his face from her. She leaned over to look at him better, cocking her head to the side when he didn't let her.

"Hey," she cooed, "what's wrong?"

"Nothing," he asserted, but Akari knew that his voice sounded strained. He couldn't hide it from her trained ears.

"Something's wrong." She curled her lips downwards in something of a curt frown, eyebrows furrowing as she thought about what could've happened to make him like this. As far as she could tell, nobody would say anything mean to Itachi. He didn't have any reason to be afraid of enemies since he was the best on the team, and he didn't disappoint anyone yet.

"I'm…f-fine,"

"Your voice is shaking. Are you—?" Her hand reached out before she could stop the curious movement, and she pried the strands of hair out of his face to look at his eyes. He flinched at her touch, but couldn't escape her as she grabbed his cheeks and forced him to look at her,

There were tears in his eyes, and his nose was red and shining in the light of the moon. He wore a frown, dressed in red from the tracks that his tears had taken. Akari wiped off the ones on his chin and his cheek with the back of her sleeve, even when his hands came up to try to swat hers away.

"You should wipe that snot off your face, it'll get hard and crunchy." She looked around herself to see if she had anything for him to use.

"That's gross." Akari smiled at him, a genial smile that barely reached her eyes. Somehow, it was enough to make Itachi shoot her a smile back.

Her eyes landed on her bandages, and so she took out a kunai and unwound them a little before slicing off the extra bits. She blowed them off and handed the cloth to him so that he could finish wiping off his face. Akari stuck her fingers in the stream to cleanse them of his tears, even when he started sniffling.

"You having snot all over your face is gross, too, ne." She plopped back and stuck out her recently bare feet into the stream amidst the jagged pebbles and the mossy rocks.

"Please don't tell anyone." His voice was soft and pleading, like the first words of a baby before they're sure that they said the right thing. Except he wasn't a baby, he was Itachi. Itachi the leader, the head of the class, top in the entire Academy, the 8-year old Uchiha prodigy who had activated his sharingan only a few weeks ago and was currently mastering its use. This wasn't that Itachi, but someone who Akari could only vaguely recognize. "Please?"

"Yeah, sure. But you've gotta promise to tell me what's wrong." She stuck out her pinky, waiting for him to wash his hand off before their fingers grit together with the sand from the stream and he sat down beside her.

"I've never been away from home for a night." Akari raised an eyebrow, not out of her skepticism or spite or anything so crude, but because she felt compelled to ask him more.

"So you're homesick?" But Itachi shook his head, pulling his knees up to his chest and pressing his chin into them.

"It's not that," he murmured. "I just…my mom always keeps the light on outside the hallway when I sleep."

"So you're scared of the dark?" This time he didn't grace her with an answer, and so she looked to him to see if he'd relay anything in his face. "You're scared of the dark, aren't you?"

"Please stop saying it," he begged. It made Akari smirk a little to herself to know that she had something on Itachi, that she could hold this over his head if she wanted anything from him. But then, she'd also pinky-promised not to tell anyone about it. It was a simple rule of honor and morals that stated that one couldn't break a pinky-promise.

"Then, why'd you come all the way out here? It's stupid to walk out into the darkness, away from everyone else and the fire." He dropped his eyes to the ground, something that made Akari bite her lip in anticipation. What was he hiding from her? Was it something urgent? Were there enemy ninja out here for them to fight?

"I had to use the bathroom." Her breath hitched as she stifled a laugh, which came out as a mix between a strangled cough and a chortle.

"You mean that's it? You could've come back with everyone else instead of sitting out here all by yourself." Her mind then drifted to other things, and she wrinkled her nose in a grimace. "Please tell me that you washed your hands."

**Another A/N: so here's this trash for your entertainment. I don't know if I'm finished with the second half of what should have been part of this chapter but I dunno should I keep going? I haven't even gotten to the kyuubi incident and even more dying but you know, I think I might just have it end at that point. Akari was going to grow up into a responsible adult but I don't know if _I_ can make it to that point...oh well! You live and you learn, right? Right! I'll continue writing, but I think I've managed to fall out of this fandom, especially since Naruto is technically over. I think that I've changed and this story has changed in my mind too much for me to use the original plan.**

**Yes, it will all end soon, I think. **


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